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THE COLORING BOOK

Name: THE COLORING BOOK
Author: Colin Quinn
ISBN: 978-1-4555-0759-7

A COMEDIAN SOLVES RACE RELATIONS IN AMERICA

by Colin Quinn ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2015

Dark and gritty comedy served with just a little too much rancor. Quinn squanders a promising opportunity in a memoir that...

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The comedian and former Saturday Night Live Weekend Update host tackles race and political correctness.

At a certain point in this often jarring meditation about growing up in 1970s Brooklyn, the author warns readers that many of them will probably come away thinking he's an ass. He may be right about that. There’s little in this Irish comic’s impressions about nearly any race that hasn’t already been heard many times before. It’s true that Quinn's over-the-top generalizations about particular cultural predilections are clearly more comic than critique, but by now, hearing yet again how the Irish are like this, or the Asians are like that, and so on, will strike many as tiresome. Fortunately, Quinn doesn't rely too heavily on his ethnic jabs to score points, choosing wisely to expend just as much energy, if not more, on self-deprecation. Whether recounting a drunken and deranged attempt to rip off a couple of sex workers secretly armed with rock-lined handbags or a particularly ugly incident groping a sad and lonely shut-in during a liquor store home delivery, Quinn demonstrates a laudable frankness that probably didn’t automatically manifest itself once he sobered up. “Talk about beer muscles,” he writes. “When I drank I was convinced I was an intellectual martial arts champion. I swaggered around the streets of New York City like I owned them.” The heat-cooked asphalt and glass-strewn streets that helped shape the author’s former hard-living ways are, indeed, a richly textured font of engrossing escapades. Quinn excels best when recounting his alcohol-soaked adventures, although he never spends enough time in any one locale before he’s off again characterizing what he has found to be the best and worst in its diverse inhabitants.

Dark and gritty comedy served with just a little too much rancor. Quinn squanders a promising opportunity in a memoir that ping-pongs between bar-stool pontification and bad-boy confessional.

Pub Date: June 9, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4555-0759-7

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Review Posted Online: April 27, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.