An enjoyable, clever book about self-determination.
An artist reflects on fateful events during his youth in postwar Europe as he seeks meaning and peace in his life in this memoir.
Following a short preface, Tomicic (Die Autobahn, 2018) tells of walking with his 4-year-old daughter in a city park in an unspecified year. She remarked on the sheer volume of flowers in the grass by the side of a road. However, he needed her to point out the tiny flora, which he wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. He says that this incident reminded him of his own childhood in Europe, just after World War II. Many residents of his unnamed city weren’t coping well, he says: “It was a very upsetting situation to look at people, lying in the street, positioned like soldiers in the army and waiting for the enemy to react.” There were food lines and a general lack of resources, but he was still determined to go to art school. He was encouraged by the approval of an artist neighbor and a gift of a sketchbook from his uncle. Later, he found art college to be quite strict; if students were late once, or forgot their art supplies, they could be expelled. Nevertheless, he was thrilled to pursue his ambition. Tomicic offers readers a slim but purposeful memoir that encourages readers not only to live their dream, but also to find out what’s truly meaningful in life. Some may find that the titular metaphor of the rose in the road is a bit hard to grasp, but the author’s tales beautifully illustrate his points about the significance of key life events. For example, he tells of how one day, to his horror, he realized that he didn’t have a pencil for an art class. Knowing that this could mean the end of his education, he begged a fellow student to loan him one—and what happened next decided the future course of the author’s career. Throughout this remembrance, Tomicic’s prose is spare and elegant. As he chronicles his time as a hopeful young person in a city reduced to rubble, he wisely chooses to highlight insight over sentimentality.
An enjoyable, clever book about self-determination.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-948282-55-0
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Yorkshire Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 1, 2018
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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