A charming and amusing account of one man’s fresh experiences.
A debut memoir documents a year of new adventures.
Naval officer and physician Uniszkiewicz had always led a risk-averse life, getting by with tried-and-true methods for success and avoiding situations that might result in unpleasantness—even if they might alternatively lead to reward. “It finally occurred to me that maybe—just maybe—I needed to break out of my comfort zone,” the author writes. Encouraged by his more daring wife, the cautious doctor embarked on a year of new undertakings that would break him of his timidity. These activities ran the gamut from the fairly unexciting (running a 5K hung over on New Year’s Day) to the self-improving (learning to prepare a four-course meal) to the terrifying (hang gliding) to the truly boundary-pushing (staying at a nudist resort). That last one was actually an accident: “I was the only one embarrassed by the whole situation,” the author recalls. “Where do I look? Do I make eye contact? Do I respectfully avert my eyes?” With each new episode, Uniszkiewicz found his layers of inhibition slowly falling away, making him susceptible to the lessons that life had to offer. His main question was just how different a person would he be at the end of the year—assuming he managed to get through it in one piece? The author, a practiced storyteller, recounts his escapades in a cheerful, self-deprecating prose that manages to highlight each semivoluntary step forward. His natural abhorrence of new endeavors means that no item on his list goes off as smoothly as it would for a normal participant, leading to moments of wonderful awkwardness. While Uniszkiewicz doesn’t plunge into anything too crazy, he manages to wring more humor out of many situations (fishing, meditation) than a reader would expect. More important, his revelations, axiomatic as they might ultimately be, feel legitimately novel and earned. The difference between knowing you should do something and actually accomplishing it is vast, as the author proves again and again. As for whether he will continue taking on new challenges, he can claim at least one more: writing a book.
A charming and amusing account of one man’s fresh experiences.Pub Date: July 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63393-277-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Koehler Books
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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