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THE WAY WE LIVED THEN

Name: THE WAY WE LIVED THEN
Author: Dominick Dunne
ISBN: 0-609-60388-4

RECOLLECTIONS OF A WELL-KNOWN NAME DROPPER

by Dominick Dunne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

The dark thread that underlies the mostly frivolous tales keeps this book on a par with his most successful novels.

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From the scrapbooks of the fashionable novelist and magazine writer, a surprisingly forthright memoir that chronicles in snapshots and words decades of earthly delight in Hollywood, months of contrition, and a penitent return to rewarding work.

Dunne (A Season in Purgatory, 1993, etc.) is the author of successful romans à clef about Hollywood and “society”; he’s also a regular contributor to Vanity Fair magazine, where his assignments included coverage of the Claus von Bülow and O.J. Simpson trials. That is the rewarding work. What came before was a privileged childhood, WWII service in which he both won a Bronze Star and had his PFC stripe ripped off, and Williams College, where he knew Stephen Sondheim. Dunne launched his theatrical career as a stage manager for TV’s Howdy Doody. Good references and a fortuitous marriage led to a satisfactory career in TV and film production in Hollywood and access to the star-studded parties described and photographed here. Pictures of his children and wife predominate, along with candids of Hollywood celebrities including Jane Fonda, Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood (a favorite), the young Nancy and Ronald Reagan, and even the British royals Margaret and Snowden. Bizarre anecdotes (Frank Sinatra hired a waiter to punch Dunne out) are interspersed with the banal (Truman Capote was a great dancer). Dunne gradually turned into a self-confessed “asshole,” drinking and doping, until his wife ejected him and he fled to a six-month retreat in a tourist cabin in Oregon. Along his way to recovery and journalistic celebrity, the mother of his children was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and his beloved daughter was murdered.

The dark thread that underlies the mostly frivolous tales keeps this book on a par with his most successful novels.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-609-60388-4

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
TOO MUCH MONEY
by Dominick Dunne

- BOOK REVIEW
JUSTICE
by Dominick Dunne

- BOOK REVIEW
A SEASON IN PURGATORY
by Dominick Dunne

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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.