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THE INEVITABLE

Name: THE INEVITABLE
Author: David Shields
ISBN: 978-0-393-33936-9

CONTEMPORARY WRITERS CONFRONT DEATH

edited by David Shields and Bradford Morrow ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 21, 2011

A wonderfully speculative patchwork quilt on the meaning of life and death.

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Twenty writers discuss what the inevitability of death means to them.

Editors Shields (Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, 2010, etc.) and Morrow (Ariel’s Crossing, 2002, etc.) elicit a wide-ranging variety of responses to their request to “speak the unspeakable, envision the unseeable.” In the intensely personal “The Siege,” Joyce Carol Oates vividly describes her grief after her husband's death, while Annie Dillard’s “This is the Life” is more philosophical. She writes that whatever our culture tells us about how to live our lives, the fundamentals remain the same: “You have seen an ordinary bit of what is real, the infinite fabric of time that eternity shoots through, and time's soft-skinned people working and dying under slowly shifting stars. Then what?” In “Bayham Street,” Robert Clark interweaves his unsuccessful efforts to learn more about the life of a sister he barely knew with his exploration of past historical and cultural events during a trip to Europe. “A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease” is Jonathan Safran Foer’s humorous account of how his family uses pregnant pauses to slide over serious issues, including his father's heart condition, uncomfortable questions about girlfriends, painful memories, etc. Though most of this collection’s essays are impressive, Sallie Tisdale's piece, “The Sutra of Maggots and Blowflies,” is a standout. In it, the author finds beauty in the way that maggots and blowflies are part of the cycle of birth, death and the re-creation of life by feeding on decomposed matter: “a piece from here and a fleck from there, a taste of this karma, a speck of that memory, this carbon atom, that bit of water, a little protein, a pinch of pain: until a new body and a new life is made from pieces of the past. The wee bit they claim, can you begrudge it? Dissolved, our flesh is their water, and they lap us up.” Other contributors include Mark Doty, Geoff Dyer, Peter Straub, Terry Castle and Diane Ackerman.

A wonderfully speculative patchwork quilt on the meaning of life and death.

Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-393-33936-9

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE VERY LAST INTERVIEW
by David Shields

- BOOK REVIEW
THE TROUBLE WITH MEN
by David Shields

- BOOK REVIEW
NOBODY HATES TRUMP MORE THAN TRUMP
by David Shields

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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.