Fidelman's Exhibition had its original vernissage in three of the six stories which appeared (since retouched) in The Magic Barrel and Idiots First. Artur Fidelman, aging boy from the Bronx, attempts to become Arturo Fidelman, painter in Italy, and these episodes involve his Wanderjahre through some of the more aromatic back-streets of Rome, where he's beleaguered by a Jew of Jews and refugee of refugees, one Susskind; Florence, where he's taking out the garbage of Annamaria who uses and abuses him before she tosses him out of her bed and where he's recruited by some lesser thieves into making a copy of a Titian; also where he spends years trying to paint a "Kaddish"—a Mother and Son, his uncreated masterpiece, which finally becomes the sum of its originals—Prostitute and Procurer (he's been pimping for his model Esmerelda); and finally in Venice where a glassblower Beppo teaches him another art as well as another kind of love. Beppo also tries to make him see that "half a talent is worse than none" which somehow Fidelman is able to controvert. He's in the tradition of Malamud's hapless heroes which Marcus Klein called the school of slapstick angst; the funny, sad, self-confessed failure who, while he never succeeds, still triumphs. Unquestionably.
Pub Date: May 5, 1969
ISBN: 0413445305
Page Count: 175
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1969
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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