Sweet but not saccharine, these reminiscent pieces invite the reader on a journey to the streets of Fresno, where the...
The noted poet, essayist, and fiction writer (Petty Crimes, 1998, etc.) here offers a series of quick sketches, each a thumbnail miniature of the hustle, bustle, dreams, confusion, and beauty of life.
Soto’s latest collection includes the contents of two previous volumes (Small Faces , 1986, and Lesser Evils, 1988), as well as five recent essays published in various journals. As he ponders the flotsam of events that constitute his life, daily experiences and casual interactions take on a luminous quality. Reader will feel immediate familiarity with the normal and ordinary events, people, and places Soto describes; he avoids banality by infusing these basic patterns with a gentle humor and a deep affection. Falling for the girl plastered on the label of a can of peas, receiving oranges as Christmas presents, eating and drinking with friends, traveling with hitchhikers, and other everyday moments emerge as opportunities to consider the vagaries of life while concurrently appreciating its gifts. There is an occasional misstep, as when Soto pedantically admonishes, “We lose the child of the heart by becoming adults who compromise their dreams for jobs,” but such disappointments are more than adequately compensated for by the charm of passages describing the quiet beauty of kissing his daughter’s stuffed dolphin’s behind, imagining what it would be like to be chastened by a dog, or likening the blowhards at an academic meeting to pieces of talking meat. For the most part, Soto’s tone and temperament are sharp, yet genial. The collection concludes with four essays on reading, writing, and readership.
Sweet but not saccharine, these reminiscent pieces invite the reader on a journey to the streets of Fresno, where the mundane details of existence shine.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2000
ISBN: 0-89255-254-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2000
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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