A veteran humorist offers wry and shticky counsel on how to survive the ``rough patch'' of incipient male aging. Friedman (The Current Climate, 1989, etc.) has been plumbing urban neuroses for a while; here, he alternates chuckle-worthy insights with annoying absurdity. He opens with an amusing checklist for the SOG (e.g., ``You make it through the night without a trip to the bathroom and consider it a cause for celebration''), then lowers his aim by positing how memory loss might lead to an inadvertent phone conversation with Julia Roberts. On sex, he's a hoot: Using baseball terms, he proposes that the SOG should recognize the loss of his ``high hard one'' and instead ``develop a slider.'' He moves on to offer advice about diet (``listen carefully to your body''), appearance (``Nobody admires a Slightly Older Guy who looks like Howard Hughes''), and fitness (treadmills are ``an excellent way to get through Proust''). Regarding ex-wives, he is emphatic: ``The key to amiable coexistence...is to stay out of her life—and hope she stays out of yours.'' And on some bedrock issues, he's downright wise: Avoid feeling personal affronts at a contemporary's success, he warns. He's quite tender toward the concept of the Slightly Older Wife, who, he observes, ``has invested heavily in you.'' Be a good sport about your kids, he says, even if you suspect the child may not be yours. Friedman further offers thoughts on saving money (check Modern Maturity—in private, of course—for travel savings), possible later-life careers (limo driver, memoirist), even a run for office (oppose coddling criminals and TV violence). Finally, he counsels that SOGs tie up loose ends, decide what they want out of life, and proceed—with no whining. Slight, but for Friedman's target demographic, reliably fun. (illustrations)
Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-684-80206-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1995
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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