Of interest only to food activists and organic-gardening buffs—who are probably already converts to the cause.
The pleasures are few, the politics plenty, in this preachy treatise on the politically correct production and consumption of food.
Known for his work as a “seed saver” and explainer of traditional Native American agricultural practices, Nabhan (The Culture of Habitat, 1997, etc.) conducts what might have been an interesting experiment in these pages: after having visited his ancestral Lebanon and eaten some nice, fresh hummus, kibbi, and baba ghannouj, he decided to weed through his pantry back home in Arizona, ditch food that was not locally produced, and thereafter, as much as possible, eat only local goodsesquite flour, cactus pads, squash, and “maybe some fat lizards, and a snake or two.” The odd and sometimes unpalatable ingredient aside, the point is a good one; most of us, Nabhan notes, eat foods that are shipped in from points of origin thousands of miles distant, foods bathed in chemicals and preservatives. Exploring what local food entails (and using a formula from other of his books), he visits Indian villages and fields in Mexico and the Southwest, as well as a few alternative farms elsewhere, drawing on the wisdom of the elders to show the rottenness of the dominant culture. Those tours over, Nabhan peppers the later pages of his account with earnest, stiff denunciations of such local produce-unfriendly entities as the World Trade Organization and Monsanto, the chemico-agribusinesses that is the world’s chief producer of genetically modified seeds. Although his intentions are good, the author’s energetic self-congratulation, clumsy prose, and florid epiphanies—“If food is the sumptuous sea of energy which we dive into and swim through every day, I have lived but one brief moment leaping like a flying fish and catching a glimmering glimpse of that sea roiling all around us”—make this a chore to read.
Of interest only to food activists and organic-gardening buffs—who are probably already converts to the cause.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-393-02017-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 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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