Fascinating and intimate, a kaleidoscopic portrait of the people, events, and ideas that shaped a major poet’s life.
A Nobel laureate’s musings on random subjects, listed alphabetically.
It’s easy to understand why Milosz (Road-Side Dog, 1998, etc.) chose this format for his brief prose pieces. The amount of random data packed in here—biography, literary criticism, history, cultural geography, philosophy—demands a superimposed organization. Each entry begins with its subject, starting with Polish publisher “Abramowicz, Ludwik” and ending with “Zan, Tomasz,” after whom a library in Wilno, Poland, was named. The unifying thread of an expatriate’s heavy heart runs through much of the writing. Long-deceased friends from Poland, regions of America Milosz treasures, and writers he once read with young eyes make up a large proportion of the entries, which resonate not with nostalgia but with a firm (though respectful) sense that the time each person or place represents belongs in the past. Other essays, such as those on “Authenticity” and “Polish Language,” show how years gone by connect with the present. In both, Milosz attempts to review his experience of Poland. He left 50 years ago and now lives in California, but since he writes only in Polish, he still grapples with his country’s politics, literary and otherwise. “In my rejection of imposing a profound change on myself by going over to writing in a different language, I perceive a fear of losing my identity,” Milosz comments, “because it is certain that when we switch languages we become someone else.” Entries on friends lost in war and under oppressive regimes show, in personal terms, how much the author’s native land has gone through in the 20th century. Milosz links this history to everything from Waiting for Godot to the West’s arrogant blindness in regard to recent events in Yugoslavia. The web woven here, in the wisest and most charming of styles, is intricate indeed.
Fascinating and intimate, a kaleidoscopic portrait of the people, events, and ideas that shaped a major poet’s life.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-374-19977-9
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
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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