Astonishingly moronic and self-absorbed.
A tiresome collection of episodes from their days living in southern Tuscany, from Leavitt (Martin Bauman, 2000, etc.) and Mitchell (Virtuosi, not reviewed).
Leavitt and Mitchell purchased a dilapidated farmhouse in south-central Italy in 1997, and for nearly 200 pages they subject us to some random stories about the place and their life there. It is a beautiful, unspoiled spot, a hilltop of olive and fruit trees and sloping pastures, a skyline of villages in a surrounding of Etruscan memories. This is still farm and ranch land, and much of the rest is given over to a national park where wild boar, chamois, and roebuck abide. Too bad, then, that in most of these quick chapters, the authors prefer to prattle on about closet space or coo over fixtures: the stair railings they had made, for example, were “a design copied from a terrace on a crumbling building in the Monti neighborhood of Rome.” They can be painfully coy (“Isn’t the whole point of living in Italy, though, to try to live—although one knows that one cannot—in a fairy tale?”) when they aren't ladling out their own vacuous brand of social analysis (“Is it any wonder that this country is so corrupt, when men are taught by their mothers that everything good in the world is theirs by right?”). The rare passages of smooth prose (“the land is like an actress: it always shows itself from its best angle”) are buried beneath a sea of dross (“People assume that to live in Italy is necessarily more expensive than to live in America. This is and isn’t true: some things are more expensive, while others are less”). And tales about the color of Mitchell's pants or why they choose not to use a clothes dryer are remarkable only in their banality.
Astonishingly moronic and self-absorbed.Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-58243-016-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Counterpoint
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2001
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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