"Other Voices, Other Vistas," edited by Barbara H. Solomon, is a wonderful anthology of stories. The selections in the book are grouped by geographic region into 5 sections, each containing 5 stories. The regions represented are Africa, China, India, Japan, and Latin America. In her introduction, Solomon notes that all of the stories are written by major authors who had published fiction after World War II.

The group of 25 authors is full of noteworthy names: Chinua Achebe, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Jorge Luis Borges, and more. The themes in the anthology include love, marriage, parenthood, oppressive governments, art, religion, economic struggle, ideological conflict, and cultural dislocation. The modes range from fantasy to stark reality--there is violence and serenity, beauty and grotesqueness, sorrow and humor.

I especially loved the Chinese stories, which give a vivid portrayal of life under the Communist regime--it's like a real life dystopia. Other strong selections include Yukio Mishima's "Acts of Worship," about a professor's pilgrimage; Isabel Allende's "Clarisa," a colorful character study; and R.K. Narayan's "A Horse and Two Goats," a story of cross-cultural miscommunication. Overall, I would recommend this book both as a classroom text and for individual reading. Recommended companion text: "Caribbean New Wave," a short story anthology edited by Stewart Brown.

This is a pocket-size book, that contains short stories from the best international authors. Each story is a good one. Each one is different from the next. So, this book is good not only for college classes, but anyone who enjoys reading short stories from Asian, Latin, and African authors.

This collection is valuable to the teachers in humanities classes, because it opens up their students' minds (hopefully) to the new and often previously completely unknown world of different cultures. Many best authors are chosen from each culture. All stories, without exception will bring something new to you as a reader, and the reading itself will be nothing but a sheer delight!!!! All stories will also make you think about your own culture and its values. Some stories will make you laugh, yet others will make you cry...

Mr. Tandon wrote the book that surprisingly no one ever thought of writing. The book is sort of a biography of a family .. in it he has masterfully woven the whole society around it, though the reader never would realize his till you finish the book. He describes the society, the cultre and traditions from the past with great care love and nostalgia. His command of the subject is complete, I didn't find a single thing he wrote that I had known to be otherwise!!!

I first read this book 2 years ago and keep reading it again. Its a book about the Punjab that the British built ("without any hangovers from the Company") but it is also a book of Indian life of that period, and its the *best* such narration. India does not have a deep tradition of such narrations put to paper --not such superb stuff anyways. Earlier I'd read two "sequels" to this book about post-1947 India, and while they're very good, this one is really fascinating. Mr. Tandon *writes* !!

This is an absolutely superb account of a Punjabi family in transition, during a century of massive change that takes in the fading Mughal Empire in the 19th century and goes through the period of British colonial rule in the 19th and 20th centuries and finally to India's Independence in 1947. This is all seen though the eyes of a family in Punjab, which successfully makes the transition from old traditions to modernity, as seen through the thoughtful eyes of the author, who eventually becomes the first Indian Chairman of a renowned British multinational company in India and finally a leading senior manager in India's public sector. The author was also the first Chairman of the famous Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, set up together with the Harvard Business School and financial support from the Ford Foundation. Written with a verve and a keen and observant eye, it is socio-economic history at its very best. A must read for all Punjabis from India and Pakistan and for all general readers interested in the sub-continent plus all scholars of South Asia..It is a shame that this book it is out of print.The publisher should be encouraged to bring it back into print again!

I have loved this book for 20 years. It makes you dream of India as a British colony. Each character is complete, fascinating and endearing. It reminds us of old concepts, like adventure, bravery, love and romance. All written in an exquisite style.
I hungrily read more of Bromfield's work after that, but I never found another book that could even come close to the magic of The rain cames. To me, it's by far his masterpiece.

Although he published a score of acclaimed bestsellers and won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize, (as well as the 1929 O. Henry Award for Best American Short Story), Louis Bromfield remains an undeservedly obscure novelist. Works like The Rains Came exhibit his typical brilliance and bravado, while also offering a profound moral and philosophical engagement. Unlike many "classic" texts, The Rains Came is an exhilirating, entertaining, and ambitious read -- Bromfield was a master storyteller who valued, above all else, the richness and vibrancy of realistic fiction. Drama, suspense, action, romance, intrigue, and intellectual insight...this novel has it all. The Rains Came is undoubtedly an astonishing performance from an author who will hopefully reclaim his status in the literary canon. Louis Bromfield is one of the most remarkable talents of the twentieth century!

Also recommended: Bromfield's early books, collected under the umbrella title of Escape: The Green Bay Tree, Possession, Early Autumn, A Good Woman; as well as later novels such as The Strange Case Of Miss Annie Spragg, The Farm, Mrs. Parkington, Pleasant Valley, and Mr. Smith.

I'm a sucker for any books set in colonial India and this one didn't disappoint. I'll admit that it borders on schmaltz a bit, but it also offers rings very true in many spots and is well written. Its host of characters are all very interesting and the plot includes not only several love stories but also some unexpected (to me) adventure and drama. The book also offers some genuine insights into yesterday's India (and a bit of Europe, as well). Thumbs up. There was a movie made of it, too, in the 1930s. I watched it and enjoyed it, but it leaves out much too much.

I was blown away by this book, as much by how spiritually aware it is and how well it was written. Wow! What an adventure!

This book and the companion videos are near and dear to my heart. It kept my dreams of returning to Indonesia alive through a long a crippling illness. Lawrence and Lorne Blair were the adventurers I wanted to be. Openminded, good humored, and willing to try new things. This book kept me good company through some baaaad times. But there is far more to recommend this book than armchair travel lust. The writing is excellent, photography spectacular, and all in all a great story. I highly recommend it to anyone curious about Indonesia. I did finally get to go back and even explore a little. I'm forever grateful to the Blair brothers for this gift of a book!

An incredibly interesting tale and at times quite deep account of a 10-year joureny through the remotest islands in Indonesia. I wonder if the author is aware of how couragous he and his brother were to go to the places they went and meet such people as cannibals and headhunters and come back to tell the story! Not to mention the more subtle metaphysical comments here and there about the various religions they encountered and all of it presented with a very dry wit.

In this extremely well written book Mancur Olson applies his Noble Price winning 'Logic of Collective Action' to the real world. It tries to give a partial answer to the question: why do some countries get rich and others do not? Well: power groups emerge and make a society rigid. The society cannot properly respond to changes anymore. The theory is applied to a very large number of nations throughout recorded histrory: from ancient China and caste India to apartheid South Africa and post-industrial-revolution England. The only country/nation throughout the entire human histry he admids he has trouble understanding with this great theory is France. Read it!

Professor Olson describes a wide range of social/economic structures and processes (unions, big government, high and rising taxes, regulation, monopolies, etc.) that characterize most economies but more so the aging economies of Western Europe (This book was written before the unification of eastern and western Europe). He then proceeds to show us what these all have in common: They each, together and with time, contribute in increasingly slowing down and stifling a nation's economy. Reading this book leads one to see that the USA is also involved in a similar progression, albeit at an earlier stage. I first read this book as an Economics student about 15 years ago. I enjoyed it tremendously. I also learned from it. His clear and powerful conveyance of concepts have kept the ideas with me. He explains the economics simply yet completely. One need not have studied Economics to follow him. I highly recommend this book. Even though the author's forescast is gloomy, his book is brilliant. Sherry S.

It surprises me that I haven't reviewed this book..... Anyway, this is one of the classic works on political economy: it builds on the Olson's earlier (and perhaps even better work) 'The Logic of Collective Action' using the logic contained therein to explain why and how different societies have prospered (and declined....) at certain stages in the world's or there own development.

Without writing a short book report for the undergraduate readers of this book, countries he examines are spread across the world; much of his thesis hinges on post-WWII comparisons of the US against Japan and Germany....

For prospective readers of Olson's work: first, I would start with 'The Logic...' BEFORE you read this, though a reading of this book would not be compromised by not having done so. His newer book 'Power and prosperity...' can be safely avoided (it's kinda expensive as it is still only out in hardcover...) having read both of these; you could then waste your political economy-budgeted money on either the works of Douglass North ('Structure and Change in Economic History';'The Rise of the West), Karl Polyani ('The Great Transformation'), or, well, Hemingway or Fitzgerald or something fun to read.....

I do highly recommend this book. Any student of foreign affarirs, politics at any level (though people who don't do IR or comparative stuff might benefit more from 'The Logic...'), economists, or students of history. Perhaps even to more general readers.....

If, like me, you've been meaning to read The Raj Quartet, but have been daunted by it's gargantuan bulk, this shorter sequel offers an ideal entree to Paul Scott's Anglo-Indian world. Here he takes what I understand are two very minor characters from the quartet, Colonel Tusker Smalley and his long-suffering wife Lucy, and makes their story the centerpiece of a sweetly elegiac comic novel.

The year is 1972 and the Smalleys have stayed on in Pankot, India even after Independence in 1947, less out of love of the country or it's people, than out of financial need and sheer spite on Tusker's part. Where the upper class Brits were able to just scamper home, the Smalleys represent the folk of the middle class, who felt that they had invested something in the colony and now deserved to get something out of it. As he explains to Lucy:

I know for years you've thought I was a damn' fool to have stayed on, but I was forty-six when Independence came, which is bloody early in life for a man to retire but too old to start afresh somewhere you don't know. I didn't fancy my chances back home, at that age, and I knew the pension would go further in India than in England. I still think we were right to stay on, though I don't think of it any longer as staying on , but just as hanging on, which people of our age and upbringing and limited talents, people who have never been really poor but never had any real money, never inherited money, never made real money, have to do, wherever they happen to be, when they can't work anymore. I'm happier hanging on in India, not for India as India but because I just can't merely think of it as a place where I drew my pay for 25 years of my working life, which is a hell of a long time anyway, though by rights it should have been longer.

But now, with Tusker's health in decline, Lucy has increasing concerns about her own future. As is, they have led a pretty precarious existence for the past 15 years, having been reduced to living in a hotel, the new owner of which is a ghastly Indian woman, who married the manager, Mr. Bhoolabhoy, one of Tusker's few remaining friends. The author etches a finely detailed portrait of his characters and in particular of the difficult marriage of the Smalleys. Tusker is an irascible curmudgeon straight out of an old British barracks. Lucy has been disappointed that their relationship did not fulfill her romantic ideals. These strains are exacerbated by the daily indignities they must now suffer as the last seedy remnants of the departed British Empire, looked down upon by the very natives they once lorded it over. In the final scenes of the novel, two letters are written which will change these peoples' lives, for better and for worse.

This is a very funny and ultimately a deeply moving story. The Smalleys are a couple the reader won't soon forget. I liked it so much, I think I may finally heft that colossal Quartet off of the shelf and give it a go.

GRADE: A-

I would not rank this lovely novel with the Raj Quartet in power or scope, but it is certainly a delightful read. It is tragi-comic... comic in the characters Scott presents to us; tragic (or at least sad) in its portrayal of a marriage coming to its natural end.

Out of all his novels, including those set in India, this is his greatest work. Funny, wonderfully written, and sometimes disturbing, this novel is truly brilliant.

The protagonist of this story is a tiger! He is young and ferocious (as we all fancy we are), he faces the cruelties of the world (being made into a show animal), he reacts through murder and carnage (as might be natural for a tiger), and he evolves into a philosophical and detached being, no longer quite " a beast."

The story of his evolution into an enlightened soul is uplifting.
The message, I think, is that every soul, not just human, has a consciousness, and strives for something.

The proof in the power of Narayan's crystal clear narrative is that the reader feels for the tiger, respects him, and admires him for the soul he has become. (Few lucky folks can attain the state of this smart cat!) Like many Narayan stories, he tackles a challenging premise and makes it appear effortless.

READ THIS! READ THIS!

Is it true than only human beings can think? Do not animals have the ability to think? Well, never mind; but what if they did? Well, if animals did think, then you get a classic book, 'A Tiger for Malgudi' by name.

I picked this book up because R.K. Narayan is my favorite author. And when I read the title, I thought the story was about how a man-eater or something enters Malgudi and terrifies the townsfolk and the like. But the blurb bemused me. Wait a minute, this book is different, I thought.

And it really was. The entire story is narrated by a tiger. It recounts its younger days, how it gets caught and is made to perform in a circus, how it escapes only to be captivated by the magical powers of a saint who leads it into the forest. An entertaining philosophical discourse follows, and finally the saint entreats the tiger to enter the protection of a zoo.

The entire novel can be completed in a couple of hours, but when one recounts the tale, one will break into fits of laughter. The humor and sarcasm are so very characteristic of Narayan. And there is no better scene in the story as the one when the tiger enters a local school. If anything, you'll discover India in that one scene.

From page one I was entranced by the intricity of this marvelous book. It runs back to the times of the ancients, and uncovers their wisdom in a way never heard before. I absolutely love this amazing book.

The author has a definite goal in this book: to find truth behind the Peruvian (to be specific, Incan) birdmen, those who in legend flew over the South American jungles, whom are depicted in abundance in existing Incan textile. Previously I held no particular interest in Incan culture. I picked up the book at a bookstore simply because I had enjoyed enormously Shah's sense of humor in his previous book, "Sorcerer's Apprentice." I was in no sense disappointed.

Shah travels on foot/lamas through Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, Nazca (where the "Nazca Lines," or geoglyphs, are located), Lima, Iquitos, and on boat along the Amazon and Corrientes rivers. A lot of research regarding flight history, Incan history, natural history, and local tribes were put into the monograph, evidenced by frequent remarks of classics within the passages and also by the bibliography at the end of the book. Shah's depiction of what he observed is lively, humorous, and most of all, engaging -- and precisely because it was engaging, I was kept in suspense over what the "final truth" of the birdmen might be.

The ending was compelling, but can be controversial. Instead of plainly stating facts as in usual travel logs, Shah takes a literary route and leaves the readers at the very climax of his journey. By this I mean the author not recording his way back, nor attempting to explain what he had discovered. I really liked the way it is as it left much space for me to imagine (besides, what could the author possibly contribute to a field -- the theory behind the origins of the Nazca Lines -- where the norm is speculation?).

If you are open to such literary deviations, this book is a great read, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

It's another of Shah's peculiar passions, shrunken heads, that spurs his quest up the Amazon in search of the legendary fliers of Peru. "..." Alas, all the heads at this invitation-only auction ("...") are scooped up and Shah's only consolation is the cryptic remark of a French collector that if he was forty years younger, he'd seek out the Birdmen of Peru.

As it happens, this also dovetails with Shah's interest in flight (...), and after some serious research into scant legends of pre-Wright flight, he takes the Frenchman's advice.

Shah, born into Afghan nobility, brought up in Britain, combines a neophyte's wariness with a a scholar's penchant for research and a dogged will to follow the clues anywhere. As a writer, his gift for capturing the absurd is surpassed only by his ability to laugh at himself, making for an aborbing, educational and hilarious trip through the remoter regions of Peru and Inca culture.

Ridiculously over-supplied, Shah struggles with his mounds of luggage from campsite to crowded bus and train, from dusty village to timeless ruins to, at last, the jungles of the Amazon rain forest. To start, a four-day backpacking trip across mountain passes brings him to sunrise over the lost Inca city of Macchu Pichu, missed by the gold-hunting conquistadors, but overrun by busloads of modern tourists. Here Shah examines a temple dedicated to the condor, but his guide tells him his obsession with flight misses the point. " 'Whether the Incas flew or not is irrelevant,' she said. 'Instead, you must ask why they wanted to fly.' " Shah takes this advice to heart and incorporates the spiritual element into his quest.

Passing the time with shopkeepers, launderers, expatriates and anyone else who crosses his path, Shah acquires good luck totems and encounters the looted graves of Peru's mummies, the mummies themselves littering the ground. In small museums he finds hundreds of woven birdmen in the mummies' exquisite funerary robes. He pauses in a town famous for vampires (to tourists anyway) and stays in a deserted luxury hotel, haunted by a bloodthirsty ghost. He reaches his own conclusions about the Nazca Lines, ancient desert etchings of animals whose forms can only be seen from the sky. He meets several shaman, one of whom cures Shah's troubled mind with a rite which involves a guinea pig and a prohibition against shaking hands for 40 days. Others use datura or curare.

Meandering, Shah makes his way toward the Shuar, the Birdmen, who live still in the remote jungle. A group of missionaries was murdered only the previous month for arriving with empty hands, he's told. Loaded with gifts as well as his state-of-the-art gear, Shah at last embarks in search of the tribes and their ayahuasca, a mind-altering "Vine of the Dead," their secret of flight.

His guide is a taciturn naturalist and Vietnam vet, an American named Richard, who seldom sleeps. The mysteries of nature are Richard's passion...Their transportation is a half-rotten hulk and after their first night, Shah discovers his shoes have been gnawed by rats. He decrees death to the rodents but the boat is shortly overrun with cockroaches and then wolf spiders - staples of the rats' diet. At a shoreside village, Shah buys new rats.

This is only the beginning. After arriving at his first Shuar village (...) Shah is taken to a shaman in the jungle and his description of the trip perfectly captures the difficulty of the modern traveler: "..." By the time he arrives at the Shaman's village he contemplates taking up life there. "..." But only here, deep in its natural home, can he fulfill his desire and learn the Shuar's ancient secret of flight.

Reader's of Shah's previous book, "Sorcerer's Apprentice" (a quest for magic in India) will recognize his unique affinity for the bizarre and surreal encountered while fulfilling his avid curiosity for the knowledge and traditions of other cultures. His writing is elegant, witty and often enigmatic and his eyewitness information is enhanced with meticulous research, seamlessly woven into the narrative. Shah's travel writing is in a class by itself.

There are perilous things that can happen if you try to start a collection of shrunken heads. Tahir Shah was "desperate to start a collection of my own," and so he showed up at a secretive, invitation-only auction of eleven such heads under the auspices of a "learned British society." To his dismay, within fifteen minutes, the whole set of heads was knocked down to a Japanese collector who had been "trying to corner the shrunken head market for years." The evening was not a total loss, as an elderly Frenchmen advised Shah to go to Peru. For the shrunken heads? Why, no, for the birdmen. This didn't make any sense, and the Frenchman would not elaborate, but a week later an envelope came from Paris, bearing an old feather and a quotation from a 1638 book that said Incas flew like birds over the jungle. Shah was launched onto research and travels recounted in _Trail of Feathers: In Search of the Birdmen of Peru_ (Arcade Publishing), and they make for frequently hilarious reading. He is a different type of explorer, pursuing an idea rather than going to regions no one has ever seen, and has endured with good humor atrocious travel arrangements and louche characters that would make other people scream.

After some research, he starts, of course, at the current hotspot for archeological tourism, Machu Picchu, which he finds looks from above like a condor. He goes to Nazca, the region of the famous patterns in the desert that only make sense when seen from high above. He is pursued by a Parisienne who is looking for a father for her children, and who comes equipped with a dried lama fetus which can be made, she says, into an aphrodisiac soup. In the village of Trompeteros, he attends with all the citizens the beauty contest sponsored by Inca Brand Condoms. (The master of ceremonies declares that the beauties on the stage were "clean-living girls who always used an Inca condom.") The crowd goes wild over every entrant, especially number six, who for the talent portion performs a dance which includes sucking live tree grubs from the floor and eating them. The search loops around into the upper Amazon regions, when Shah is convinced that rather than physical flight, the birdmen were psychic, or psychedelic, fliers. The experts in such flying were the Shuar tribe, the headshrinkers themselves. He finds a Vietnam vet who is only at home in the jungle, to act as guide and to hire a boat, which turns out to be rotten and full of rats and wolf spiders. After a trip of hellish tortures, they wind up in Shuar country only to be shocked: the Shuars have not only given up headshrinking and other tribal rituals, they have not only become Christians, but they have become evangelists. The missionaries have not, however, taken what would have been the fatuous step of trying to make the tribesmen abstain from ayahuasca, a hallucinogen. Shah's trip on it is the climax of the book. Yes, there were Inca birdmen.

This is a hilarious, picaresque tale which is not without its scholarly moments; Shah has done a good deal of research, and even has appendices to tell about hallucinogens and the theory of shrunken heads. There is a good deal of more-or-less practical information; read this book and you will ever after be able to perform a simple check to tell a good shrunken head from a bad one. His Vietnam vet dispenses the Five Rules of Jungle Travel: "One: chop stems downward and as low to the ground as possible; then they'll fall away from the path. Two: go slow, as speed only snags you on fish-hook thorns. Three: rest frequently and drink liquid. Four: love the jungle, don't hate it. Five: check your groin for parasites twice an hour." Words to live by. And if, by chance, the closest you get to a jungle expedition is to be reading this merry recollection, you will consider yourself lucky.

This is a tremendously diverse collection of photographs, both geographically and culturally, and Steve McCurry is one of my personal heroes as a photographer. That said, the relatively poorer reproduction quality and maturity of the pictures looks shabby compared to his magnificent new portfolio book, 'South Southeast', and the unbelievable value of 'Portraits', both professionally printed by Phaidon Press. I don't think there are a crew of color prepress technicians in the world that can outdo Phaidon's, and that is the ONLY reason I am not giving this fine book a perfect score -- McCurry has proven since its publication that he was capable of even greater glory. (If you don't already have it, buy Portraits TODAY -- it is an incredible value!)

This book is much more than pictures of the world's greatest weather phenomonon. It puts a human face on the monsoon. Unforgettable and powerful images.

Steve McCurry's account of what he experienced over the year + that he spent travelling through Asia to photograph this book is spell-binding. His photos are fascinating, unique, and of the highest (e.g., National Geograpic) quality. He went to many places where few, if any, other photographers have gone (and endured conditions few would be willing to face). As a result, he got some truly remarkable photos (but be sure to also read the text). This book is unforgettable, and a classic. I discovered it in a bookstall in India several years ago, and want more copies. I am very relieved to hear it is still in print, and still in paperback (at amazon.uk).

1. It was interesting finally to see a book on Indian philosophy beginning with Bhagvat Gita and four Purushaarthas for a change. These are the hallmarks of Indian philosophy, especially Hindu thought. I particularly liked his notion of attitudes about the Purushaarthas. That was a new approach towards Dharma, Artha, Kaama and Moksha. However, his sequence is different. He places Artha, Kaama, Dharma and then Moksha which is different from the traditinal sequence. Also, his description of Artha and Kaama was little inadequate. Artha and Kaama have been regarded as two powers in Hindu thought. Artha (Wealth) is deemed necessary so that all the economic resources can be spent for charities, donations and other spiritual/social works. Similarly, Kaama is treated as God's creation also in BhagwatGita Chapter 4, only if it is according to prescribed Dharam/scriptures. This information is missing from pages 5-10 (chapter 1).

2. In the same chapter, page 15 - 19, he talks about Renunciation and Resignation. I found it very very bold defence of Krishna's advise to Arjuna to fight. It is indeed a controversial topic and I am glad that Potter did support Krishna's advocacy for freedom and performing one's duty without attachment to results. And here, Potter has defined Karma Yoga so beautifully.

3. But in the very next chapter, page 40 in the section for Paths for freedom, while describing Karma Yoga, he misses the important points he just mentioned in the previous chapter pages 15 - 19 (as above). He confuses Karma - Kaanda(rituals) of Vedas with Karma Yoga, how sad!

Like the previous reviewer I was lucky enought to have been taught by Professor Potter himself, though I met him at a latter stage in his career while attending the University of Washington. His book, especially the first four chapters, presents the foundations upon which the Indian philosophical mind turns better than any other book I know. I strongly believe that this is the best place to begin one's studies of Indian thought, not because it provides the best systematic account of the history of Indian philosophy but because it provides the clearest articulation of its most basic presuppostions. Highly recommended reading for both its insights and quality of writing.

This book is a must-read for those interested in Indian philosophies. Like ancient/medieval Western philosophies, Indian philosophy is hard to grasp unless one has a clear sense as to what sorts of problems the philosophers are trying to answer. In this work Potter does a very good job at this-- he lays out the fundamental problem that all (speculative) Indian philosophies attempt to solve: How is complete freedom possible? As explained very clearly by Potter, complete freedom is understood by classical Indian philosophers as BOTH freedom-to (i.e. we can effect changes in the world so that we can be free from bondage by karma) and freedom-from (i.e. the world leaves us with sufficient room that we don't HAVE to stay bounded or become free). Put under this fundamental understanding, Potter was able to provide a clear survey of a myriad of ~20 most significant philosphers' views-- their logics, ontologies and epistemologies-- under a very handy framework of classification. Potter's classification is philosophically-oriented and is infinitely more useful than the standard scheme (Materialists, Buddhism, Jainism and the 6 Hindu 'Orthodox' schools). This classification is both very insightful and original. As someone who is fairly well-acquainted with the different strands of classical Chinese philosophy (which asks a slightly different question: 'how is becoming a possible?' where the interpretation of the sage as end-goal is more diversely understood than in the Indian tradition), I feel that Potter's framework gives me a powerful tool to help me acquire a much deeper philosophical understanding of the Chinese traditions.
As a clear thinker, Potter writes with sharp clarity and is able to express difficult ideas in fairly accessible terms. In fact, it's a real accomplishment to complete such an ambitious survey of major Indian philosophies in a manuscript of less than 300 pages. I only wish that Potter had revised this work after his editing of the encyclopedia of Indian philosophies! (This work was originally published in 1963, and does show his lack of a good first-hand understanding of Buddhist philosophies. If Potter had revised this after his editing of the Encyclopedia, I'm sure this book will be longer and with more thorough analysis on the Abhidharma philosophies.)