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THE PUSHCART PRIZE XXIII

Name: THE PUSHCART PRIZE XXIII
Author: Bill Henderson
ISBN: 1-888889-09-8

BEST OF THE SMALL PRESSES

edited by Bill Henderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1998

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Here’s the ever-welcome annual sampling of noncommercial publishing, full enough of poems, stories, and essays to redeem Henderson’s somewhat self-congratulatory introductory declaration of literary independence (and survival). This year the essays rank a bit higher than the stories, despite biggish-name contributions by Colum McCann, Jeffery Eugenides, Frederick Busch, and Stephen Dixon. Founding editor Joyce Carol Oates delivers a hallmark portrayal of family secrets and hidden violence in “Faithless,” and Thomas Disch offers a jet-black satire of NEA-sponsored theater in “The First Annual Performance Festival at Slaughter Rock.” Otherwise, the stories often show the watermark of writing workshops in their pages (although none of this basically competent selection could be confused with the assembly-line fiction of the ’80s). The idiosyncratic personal essay is clearly well suited to the Pushcart arena, although essays here are outnumbered by other genres. The best include Andre Dubus’s moving reflection on teaching Hemingway’s story “In Another Country”; Francine Prose’s quirky profile of her father’s career as a pathologist at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital; Julie Showalter’s vivid memoir of hardscrabble farming in “The Turkey Stories”; and Emily Fox Gordon’s tartly amusing rumination on girls’-school hierarchies and modern feminism in “The Most Responsible Girl.” The few essays about poetry, such as Carol Muske’s on Auden’s honorable self-sabotage of his laureateship in “There Goes the Nobel Prize,” outstrip in quality many of the poems. Among the poetry contributors are Toi Derricotte, Marilyn Hacker, and Grace Schulman. “Nobody wants to buy us!” exclaims Henderson, to account for Pushcart’s successful existence outside corporate publishing—no one, that is, except readers interested in good writing.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1998

ISBN: 1-888889-09-8

Page Count: 600

Publisher: Pushcart

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1998

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PUSHCART PRIZE XLVIII
edited by Bill Henderson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PUSHCART PRIZE XLVII
edited by Bill Henderson

- BOOK REVIEW
PUSHCART PRIZE XLVI
edited by Bill Henderson

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.