Jourdan’s narrative is elliptical, the details fuzzy and the portraits sketchy; her parents in particular remain enigmatic...
Sentimental memoir recounts how the author abandoned a promising legal career in Washington, D.C., to help with her father’s family medical practice.
When her mother was hospitalized for cardiac distress, U.S. Senate Counsel Jourdan headed back to her hometown in East Tennessee. She imagined she’d be subbing as Daddy’s receptionist for just a few days, until Momma was well again. At least she hoped so, since running Dr. Jourdan’s busy medical office (the only one for many miles in this rural area) was quite overwhelming. Not only did the author have to answer constantly ringing phones and fill out a mountain of Medicare paperwork, she had to register and triage the nutty locals who filed in all day with ailments ranging from aching backs, sore throats and creaky joints to smoker’s lungs and anaphylactic shock. This motley parade of mostly elderly patients provided a daily dose of running gags. One of the tiny, aged Hankins sisters accidentally stood on the pedal that operated Dr. Jourdan’s motorized table, nearly breaking it and dumping her Alzheimer’s-addled friend Miss Viola on the floor. Drunken Harley Hawkins got a gash on his head while taking a joy ride on a lawnmower. Matthew DeHaven III had a goat that needed to be X-rayed. And so on. Meanwhile, Mrs. Jourdan came home, but seemed too disoriented to return to the office. The seasons turned, and the author stayed on. Was she hiding from her real life, as she suggested to an old friend of her father’s? Or was she dedicating herself to real public service rather than the mere idea of it?
Jourdan’s narrative is elliptical, the details fuzzy and the portraits sketchy; her parents in particular remain enigmatic and emotionally aloof.Pub Date: June 15, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-56512-487-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2007
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
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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