Product Description
The ingenious comic novel named one of the "best books of 2004" by The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Baltimore Sun.

In The Story of My Baldness, Viennese philosophy student Marek van der Jagt tells the story of his quest for l’amour fou. Van der Jagt introduces a host of unforgettable characters and weaves a web of shameful secrets in this novel that uses Vienna the way Kafka used Prague—as the (strangely familiar) landscape where the narrator’s obsessions are given free rein.

“Van der Jagt’s dysfunctional family may be the most wondrous and most marvelously entertaining in recent memory. . . . He looses the spirit of J.P. Donleavy—and more—once again upon the world. Wonderful.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Marek’s voice . . . is what gives his romantic misadventures (first kiss, deflowering, anxiety about physical endowment) their fun air of droll farce.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“Dark, funny and penetrating.”
—The New York Observer

“Archly tongue in cheek.”
—Publishers Weekly

“This whimsical novel, written pseudonymously by a Dutch novelist, masquerades as the confessions of an Austrian philosophy student . . . [who] decides to assert his existence by pursuing l’amour fou.”
—The New Yorker
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Customer Reviews (2)

Touching and Comical Masterpiece from an Underrated Dutch Author
With The Story of My Baldness, Marek van der Jagt proves that he's an outstanding debut novelist, not once, but twice. Having won the Anton Wachter Prize in 1994 for Blue Mondays, he won it again for The Story of Baldness in 2000, the second of which was taken away after it was learned that Marek van der Jagt was the heteronym of Arnon Grunberg.

Given that, however, does not take away from the story's near perfection, made of equal parts laughter, tragedy, and a whole lot of heart.

Set in Austria, The Story of My Baldness follows Marek van der Jagt, a fictional character, as he grows up in a dysfunctional family of a carefree dad who works in insurance, a brother who continually faints for attention, another brother who works in banking after leaving music as a prodigy, and a mother who habitually cheats on her husband. The narrator swears that he tells only the story of how he goes bald at such a young age, but that part only takes a up a few pages at the end of a story about a boy trying to find love and acceptance in a cold world that stigmatizes him for his small member and a mother who's barely there. It is a quest to find what he calls "l'amour fou" and a story of his mis-steps and tragedies as he embarks on this quest. Throughout the entire journey, readers will find Marek both relatable as well as outlandish, yet either way he is full of quirky observations, both of his world and of himself. Superbly written, the novel reads flawlessly even through Marek's most uncomfortable moments, for example, a visit to a plastic surgeon in regards to changing sex.

Perfect in every way, it leaves me wondering why van der Jagt or the man behind him are so underrated in the States.

"If life is a joke, I wanted to resign."
Marek van der Jagt is a pen name for iconoclastic Dutch novelist Arnon Grunberg, whose novel Blue Mondays won the Netherlands' 1994 Anton Wachter Prize for a Debut Novel. After publishing additional successful novels, Grunberg created a literary controversy when he invented "Marek van der Jagt," an author who was supposedly a Viennese philosopher, and with whom Grunberg engaged in a bitter "rivalry," heavily covered in the European press. When The Story of My Baldness, "van der Jagt's" first novel, unexpectedly won the 2000 prize for Best First Novel, a prize Grunberg had already won, the true identity of "van der Jagt" was discovered and the prize withdrawn.

Young, irreverent, and gifted with the ability to see real life as the joke it sometimes is, Marek van der Jagt/Arnon Grunberg writes earthy, beautifully observed prose, breathing life into every aspect of this hilarious and ribald coming-of-age story. The "author" is a fourteen-year-old philosophy student as the novel opens, deciding he will devote his life to "l'amour fou," or mad, passionate love. The son of a Viennese insurance salesman and a woman for whom unrestrained "l'amour fou" is life's primary occupation, Marek has little family guidance about the facts of life, but he eventually finds two tourists, Milena and Andrea, to teach him.

Marek's farcical reactions to "l'amour fou," his inappropriate comments, his clumsy approaches, and his undisguised fascination with his older brother's prowess make Marek's first attempt at seduction one of the least romantic (and most amusing) seductions ever recorded. For Marek, however, this is an ironically life-changing experience: Milena's pointed comments about his naked body cause him to seriously question whether he might really be a dwarf, one who is a little taller than usual. The remainder of the novel deals with Marek's attempts to cope with his feelings of inferiority as he becomes an adult.

Throughout his farcical search for l'amour fou, Marek makes grand pronouncements and "profound" comments about life and love, often relating his experiences to those of philosophers and creating satiric epigrams ("If you drink enough vodka, you understand everything."). When he is making love, he thinks of Camus, ponders the French Surrealists, fantasizes about being "the Rimbaud of Vienna," and dreams of being a successful poet with a volume entitled The Dwarf and Other Poems. His comic observations about the human foibles of his larger-than-life family and friends show them to be ludicrous, while his own naïve, Don Quixote-like search for "l'amour fou" is both touching and laugh-out-loud funny. Ironic, satiric, and ultimately thoughtful, the novel teaches that one "should not live as if a masterpiece is on its way." Mary Whipple
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Product Description
Each year, men spend an enormous amount of time and money searching for a cure to male pattern baldness. Numerous psychological assessments indicate that the reasons behind their futile efforts are sound: attitudes toward bald men are overwhelmingly negative. From the first torturous attempts at hair implants early in this century to the faddish, well-hyped drug treatments of today, the extremes to which men have gone in an effort to regrow hair or cover their bald scalps are examined in this work. The various causes for baldness advanced by credible members of the medical establishment over the years are detailed, as well as instances of outright quackery prompted by numerous individuals and companies. Wigs, weaving, transplants, flaps and scalp reduction are among the techniques explained. ... Read more

Product Description
Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Baldness," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Baldness in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Baldness when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Baldness, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
More than half of men are affected by male pattern baldness by age 50, and baldness treatments are estimated to be a US $1 billion per year industry. Since the 1980s, drug therapy has increasingly become a realistic management option for baldness for men and women. Increased understanding of the role of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in male and female pattern baldness has led to targeted intervention to prevent this hormone from acting on receptors in the scalp. However, experts warn that many treatments marketed as hair loss cures are ineffective aside from the placebo effect. ... Read more

Product Description
In March 2001, the National Institutes of Health issued the following warning: "The number of Web sites offering health-related resources grows every day. Many sites provide valuable information, while others may have information that is unreliable or misleading."Furthermore, because of the rapid increase in Internet-based information, many hours can be wasted searching, selecting, and printing.This book was created for medical professionals, students, and members of the general public who want to conduct medical research using the most advanced tools available and spending the least amount of time doing so. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Pate: Whatever that is?!
This short treatise on the causes of and remedies for thinning hair ranks at the top of my list of all-time worthless and pretentious bunk. In short, the author holds that thinning hair is caused by combing your locks thewrong way. Too much and in the wrong direction, and it falls out. Forgetabout other causes: like malnutrition, emotional stress, hormonalimbalance, heredity, environmental toxicity, aging, etc.Just brush itbackwards and watch your sink fill with loose hairs. Don't waste your timeand money on this bald and toothless argument wearing a false and floweryacademic wig.

Great book! Keep up the good work Dad.
A must read for anyone concerned about how to properly manage hair and scalp to prevent baldness and maintain healthy hair. ... Read more

Product Description
"No eyebrows. No eyelashes. When it rains the water will run straight down into my eyes," Catherine Lord wrote before her hair fell out during chemotherapy. Propelled into an involuntary performance piece occasioned by the diagnosis of breast cancer, Lord adopted the online persona of Her Baldness--an irascible, witty, polemical presence who speaks candidly about shame and fear to her listserv audience. While Lord suffers from unwanted isolation and loss of control as her treatment progresses, Her Baldness talks back to the society that stigmatizes bald women, not to mention middle-aged lesbians with a life-threatening disease. In this irreverent and moving memoir, Lord draws on the e-mail correspondence of Her Baldness to offer an unconventional look at life with breast cancer and the societal space occupied by the seriously ill. She photographs herself and the rooms in which she negotiates her disease. She details the clash of personalities in support groups, her ambivalence about Western medicine, her struggles to maintain her relationship with her partner, and her bemusement when she is mistaken for a "sir." She uses these experiences--common to the one-in-eight women who will be diagnosed at some point with breast cancer--to illuminate larger issues of gender signifiers, sexuality, and the construction of community. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Chemotherapy Doesn't Have Anything On Love
Robert Summers says: "Catherine Lord went through chemotherapy, and she was radically transformed. We now read the book (the aftermath?), and we go through a different therapy -- in which we become transformed. Indeed, this auto-biography (auto-geo-graphy? auto-topo-logy?) is a book of transformations: it is always at work.
Without a doubt, I am deeply thankful to Lord for generously performing the details, insights, and performative self-portraits of her encounter with breast cancer, which became, through transference of love, my breast cancer, but in no way a non-Other-eradicating one.
If anyone has been touched by cancer (through their own body or a loved one), then this is a "must read" because it not only opens up and out to that which can kill, but it also openly demonstrates that which gives us sustenance and hence (a) life: friends, love, hope, desire.
I will forever be thankful for this book, this work, and the letters and words that this book has done on and in me.
All this written, just to say, "Thank you, Catherine Lord! I love to you"

Baldness unveiled
Catherine Lord's book exemplifies the move towards a biting, honest cultural criticism that takes its power from its visceral link to personal trauma. Amazingly enough, Lord manages to explore and perform her battle with breast cancer with humor and pathos without lapsing into self-indulgence. This is a deeply moving book but alsoan instructive one, subtly instructing the reader in essential emotional strategies of survival.

Bravo for her baldness!
Catherine Lord has written what may well bethe most complex, multi-layered account of the day to day drama, fear, anxiety and exhaustion that are all part of going through a major illness, in this case, breast cancer.Simultaneously full of rage and love, biting wit and medical detail, this book, by a sophisticated art critic and writer, is a must for any woman ( and some men) who desires more specifics of life after initial diagnosis. Although very real, it reads like a great novel.Her baldness doesnt pull any punches but will be a great companion. ... Read more

Product Description
Hair! Mankind's Historic Quest to End Baldness is a social history of one of humanity's most irksome problems: male pattern baldness.

Throughout the centuries, Man (not his real name) has tried everything to hide, treat and repair baldness, as well as a host of nostrums designed to coax hair growth from the scalp (or, at least, money from the wallets of unsuspecting baldies). Yet we stand on the brink of a truly historic epoch: Two drugs are now federally approved remedies for baldness and more are on the way while surgical techniques continue to improve, and even hairpieces are becoming acceptable again. Will baldness, the stigma it carries, and the profound psychological toll it takes on men soon be things of the past? Will bald men someday be electable? Are these even rhetorical questions?

Gersh Kuntzman takes you from the laboratories of Merck, maker of Propecia, to the operating rooms of the nation's best hair-transplant surgeons, to the rug men working on the cutting edge of artificial hair design. Hair! covers baldness like nothing before.

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Customer Reviews (4)

Covering a Big Problem
A bright and funny book, _Hair!Mankind's Historic Quest to End Baldness_ (AtRandom.com) by Gersh Kuntzman takes up the causes, stigma, and above all the treatments for baldness.It has a hilarious and scary section on the quack cures for the "loathsome disease," but concentrates on the real cures or crutches.There are now treatments for baldness, the "drugs" part of the amusingly named trilogy of cures: drugs, rugs, and plugs.Drugs available now for baldness are Rogaine and Propecia, and they both work in a limited way.There is a peculiar difficulty for researchers in field of baldness treatment.They can publish small, tentative, preliminary reports in the most obscure technical journals.All of a sudden they are inundated by requests from bald men who want to get the treatment, and if there is no treatment ready, they want to get into the test groups immediately, and if they can't get into the test groups, they accuse the investigators of being in a large, undefined conspiracy against bald men.The volumes of mail and complaints about treatments that are not yet in existence have meant that researchers had no time for research, having to spend it all on public relations.

Rugs are given an amusing coverage (sorry) in the book, but the strangest of superficial treatments are the "hair in a can" varieties.These consist of something like spray-on or spread-on gunk, sometimes chopped up sheep hair.Sheep hair is grated into microscopic pieces, dyed and given a negative static charge so that it sticks to whatever hair remains.A dry cosmetic called DermMatch gets rubbed into the scalp.The company slogan is, "Nothing looks better, stays on better, applies neater, is more healthful, or costs less to use."Kuntzman, a witty reporter, writes, "If that's the company _slogan_, I'd hate the see the employee handbook."

Plugs are no longer the thing.It used to be that hair transplants were cores of little circles of hair plugged into the balding areas.Look closely and a plugged scalp looks like that of a doll.But now there are micro-transplants, teensy cores of three hairs apiece carefully plugged in where they might do the most good.It costs thousands of dollars, and Kuntzman describes the bloody process with enthusiasm.One of the plastic surgeons interviewed who does such operations is himself bald.He says, "I'm a reasonably content guy, and it doesn't bother me enough to go through a surgical procedure.For me, hair loss is no big deal."Maybe not for him, but it is clear that is overall a big deal with big social and financial repercussions._Hair!_ tells about them with good humor and intelligence.If one of our obligations in life is to spot human foibles and to sympathize and laugh about them, Kuntzman has helped us along.

Humor and History
This is an informal, funny, but informative view of baldness.It convers the history, psychological and sociological aspects of this common condition.Where Kuntzman really shines is when he introduces the reader to the true characters in the hair business.These visits include scientists working on treatments for baldness, including gene therapist Ron Crystal; the radio show host who has a support group for the bald; the "proud to be bald conventioneers"; the hair tansplanters; and even the president of the hair club for men.These interviews are insightfull, informative, and hilarious.

A Wonderful Book
This cogent, piercing analysis of the causes and cures of baldness kept me riveted throughout. Kuntzman mixes wit, irony, and just a plain old appreciation for the wacky with some very sharp and thorough reporting. I have seen a picture of him and he has a full head of hair, which is what makes his sympathy for poor balding schlumps like myself all the more impressive. My only criticism of this book is that I wish it was longer.

I Love This Book!
As someone who began losing my hair at age 25, I found Gersh Kuntzman's "HAIR!" to be the perfect balm for my wounded pride. Kuntzman just tells the story of mankind's crazy, insane search to rid itself of this supposed scourge with wit and a great amount of research. Who knew that the ancient Egyptians used to spread hippo fat on their bald heads? By the way, it didn't work. This is a fun and funny book about a serious subject near and, unfortunately, dear to many men's hearts. ... Read more

Product Description
Contrary to the regurgitated pronouncements which originated from a theory two decades ago, male hormones are NOT primarily responsible for male baldness. The fact that this 2,400-year-old medical mystery associates with several diseases makes it a symptom rather than the disorder. Biological processes always involve environmental factors.Hair follicles are mere casualties of a raging battle between human physiology and human innovations that were suppose to enhance the quality of life: one that was invented during the ancient times: the others, new structural organizations and newer inventions that required the ancient invention - a combination that became inherent in Western society that spread to many civilizations over the centuries to just several decades ago elsewhere on the planet.Written in layman’s terms, the Author takes you to a sixteen-year investigative journey in unraveling this mystery and shows how male physiology is adversely affected by certain environments where people have to spend much of their lives today which they depend on to live "normal" lives - environments which are well established risk factors of cardiovascular diseases. When physiologic mechanisms are affected, no treatment will be effective unless the root causes are properly addressed.Pattern baldness seems to be primordial in origin because it affects every race yet the Author finds that primitive communities are immune from the condition. He found out why and the findings will surprise everyone to know that the researchers have been literally sitting on the answers to the mystery and that the countermeasures or ‘treatments’ that effectively prevent hair loss are not even treatments at all but a way of life.This way of life will seem odd from the perspective of modern-day men but have been intrinsic in many cultures and primitive communities until they were colonized by Westerners. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Male Baldness Finally Demystified
As a patient of male pattern baldness and one who holds a medical degree, I and many other men have become amateur researchers on the subject of baldness. There are seeemingly unlimited number of articles on the subject many of which are false, biased, wild theories and clouded with deceit.

This book, however, stands out because it's the only one that has investigated acquired modern behaviors which, according to the author's words, "not akin to male physiology" and isolated behaviors that are almost obligatory in modern environments but remained optional in primitive settings. (It is well documented that hunter-gatherer men are immune from baldness).

This is an out-of-mainstream approach in medical research which often looks to biochemistry, genetics and environmental/dietary factors. It seems clear to me that it may have taken this author several years to document his studies which presents arguments I have not read anywhere else - it disputes the significance of the 'androgenetic' nature of baldness -a belief proposed by biochemical researchers and widely (and wildly) accepted by the medical community.

In other words, rather than blaming environmental or genetic influences, certain acquired modern behaviors can adversly affect male physiology and predisposed them to baldness - a unique approach which seemed to be strongly supported by the author's arguments.

I must say that this book, "I Broke The Mystery of Male Pattern Baldness", may finally have answered the question of 'what really causes male baldness'. For the author's efforts and unique arguments, I give this book the high five. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on November 23, 2001. The length of the article is 4375 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: No sólo los hombres.(tratamiento de la calvicie en la mujer)(TT: It's not just men.)(TA: treatment of baldness in women)(Artículo Breve)
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 23, 2001
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Page: 94

Article Type: Artículo Breve

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This book presents a programme designed to stop hair loss and naturally restart hair-growth by a two-minute treatment, morning and evening. Over 8 million men suffer from thinning and balding hair in the UK alone and this revolutionary new book aims to prove that it is possible to arrest hair loss and restart hair growth without the use of surgery or drugs. Tested on all ages and every stage of hair loss, from slightly thinning to completely bald, there is new hair growth in every case. The book looks at current accepted causes of baldness and addresses why people really lose their hair. lt details a natural hair growth programme and guarantees results: arresting hair loss, thickening existing hair, improving hair quality and regrowing lost hair. There are case histories from people already on the programme, a doctor's view, a hairdresser's view and an analysis of the difference between male and female baldness. ... Read more

Product Description
Hair follicles are mere casualties of raging battles between human physiology and certain innovations that have been introduced over a course of 200 to 5,000 years; innovations that were suppose to enhance the quality of life. The fact that this 2,400-year-old medical mystery associates with several cardiovascular, coronary and other diseases makes it a symptom rather than the disease. These associations indicate adverse environmental conditions because cardio and coronary diseases are environmentally influenced.

The root causes of hair loss could not be established because research proceeds from a perspective that the causes are biological in nature while the Author points to certain environments that adversely affect physiology through several pathways in a range of mediating factors; the reason why FDA approved drugs do not work for the vast majority.
Written in layman’s terms, the Author takes you to a sixteen-year investigative journey in unraveling this mystery and identifies specific environments where people spend much their lives today - environments which are well established risk factors of heart diseases. They are presented here as the culmination the Author’s independent studies and other findings from credible researchers who continue to look into environmental factors.

The findings will surprise everyone to know that researchers were literally unknowingly sitting on the answers to the mystery of male pattern hair loss and that the countermeasures or ‘treatments’ which will effectively prevent hair loss might seem ridiculous and absurd but have actually been intrinsic in many cultures and primitive societies until they were colonized by Westerners. ... Read more