As much a love letter as we’re ever likely to get from an author who usually prefers satire to sentiment.
Longtime D.C. resident and novelist Buckley (No Way to Treat a First Lady, 2002, etc.) turns his wry gaze on our nation’s monuments and museums, ostensibly leading four walking tours of major sights.
Our first tour begins in Union Station, runs through the Capitol Building and on to a good number of museums on the Mall. Along with a tidy summary of the original vision and prickly personality of city designer Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the reader gets a general history of the Capitol, and extended practical advice on how best to tour the West Wing of the National Gallery of Art. A swing through the National Air and Space Museum cues Buckley to reminisce about the day when, as a lowly speechwriter flying on Air Force Two, he was accidentally handed Vice President Bush’s list of top-secret nuclear code words. Detours such as these are what make the book. One particularly memorable digression chronicles the misfortune of a stone donated by Pope Pius IX toward the completion of the Washington Monument; a posse from the Know-Nothing party tossed the “fiendish ‘Pope Stone’ ” into the Potomac. Tour two leads the reader through the great monuments and discusses the scuttlebutt behind the erection of each and every one, from Washington to Lincoln with stops in between at the Vietnam Veterans, Korean Veterans, FDR, and Jefferson memorials. The third walk takes a short jaunt through Lafayette Square, former front lawn of the White House, to Ford’s Theater, which prompts a short, moving report on the night Lincoln died. Continuing that somber note, the final tour visits Arlington National Cemetery, where Buckley’s patriotic verve gets plenty of room to move.
As much a love letter as we’re ever likely to get from an author who usually prefers satire to sentiment.Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 1-4000-4687-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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