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CUPCAKE FACTORY

A relentlessly explicit and deliberately incendiary sendup of modern American society.

A raunchy collection of skits, rants and fantasies about American politics and pop culture.

“DJ Ass Maggots” (Poseidon’s Tunnel, 2014, etc.) returns with a third book loosely structured around his Facebook page and its various comments fields generated by a “Council” going under such pseudonyms as Joey G, Neil Armstrong and LPR. These and many other voices are interjected into the author’s own as they tell pornographic stories, relate pornographic personal anecdotes, tell pornographic jokes and occasionally make deliberately provocative observations about events in the news. There’s an open letter to troubled former Hollywood star Lindsay Lohan; a list of “the 10 rules of drunk driving,” thinly veiled excoriations of bad roommates, acidic snapshots of Los Angeles night life and frequent allusions to outrageous conspiracy theories—that rapper Tupac Shakur is still alive, that singer Michael Jackson actually died filming a Pepsi commercial and was replaced by a white actor for the rest of “his” life, etc. More serious events such as the Occupy Wall Street movement or the Boston Marathon bombings are likewise exposed to the paranoid sarcasm of the author and his various “guest voices” (about the latter, for instance, “Night Writer, Esq.” writes, “Those of you idiots who don’t see that the Boston bombing—which was carried out on Patriots’ Day, the anniversary of the first shots of the US Revolutionary War—was in fact the first shot of World War III are living in the sweet bliss of ignorance”). This vaguely counterculture tone pervades the book (“are the student protestors here?” goes the rallying cry at one point. “Good. Are all the sovereign citizens here? Anarchists? Check. Anonymous hackers? Good”), and readers who can’t get enough of that kind of thing—fans of the author’s previous books among them—will find much more to entertain them here. Readers coming from a more conventional orientation will find this a toxic, misogynistic, hateful, sneering and tedious mess, and when told at one point “Maybe you shouldn’t have bothered reading this” will for once agree completely with the author.

A relentlessly explicit and deliberately incendiary sendup of modern American society.

Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2014

ISBN: 978-1499542264

Page Count: 324

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2014

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NUTCRACKER

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

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

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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