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
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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