Provocative if sometimes unfocused musings of a curious mind.
Tragedy and its consequences are the focus of this collection of essays.
Monson (English/Univ. of Arizona; Letter to a Future Lover: Marginalia, Errata, Secrets, Inscriptions, and Other Ephemera Found in Libraries, 2015, etc.), a native of Upper Michigan’s Copper Country, was so fascinated by a “storm sewer that is designed to flush everything in its path” in his adopted hometown of Tucson that, as he writes in the first of these essays, he walked through it to explore its contents. This walk made him think of a Minnesota bridge that had collapsed years earlier. He compares structures that fail to groups of people considered “stable, impenetrable, and how quickly that unit can give way into something else if stressed enough.” One such stressor was the 2011 shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, an event that Monson references throughout the collection. The theme of most of these pieces is tragedy in all its forms, from mass shootings and mining disasters to floods and tsunamis. Even when his topic is as seemingly frivolous as the Arizona Renaissance Festival, tragedy and loss are never far from his thoughts, as when he notes that fairs, like video games and other diversions, are a way “to forget about yourself for a little while.” As in previous collections, Monson experiments with the essay form, with mixed results. Sometimes, he’s too clever—e.g., in an essay about the quest for dominion over water, the text is printed to simulate liquid pouring into the gutter of the book’s binding—and frequent digressions diminish the power of his arguments. However, the best essays start in one place and move in unpredictable, satisfying directions, as when a piece on mixtapes given to him by friends leads him to ask a question that is especially moving given the collection’s emphasis on loss: “What do we leave the world? What marks do we leave in snow among the trees? What magnetic trace do we erase or tape over?”
Provocative if sometimes unfocused musings of a curious mind.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64445-011-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graywolf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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