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INFORMED CONSENT

Name: INFORMED CONSENT
Author: John A. Byrne
ISBN: 0-07-009625-2

A STORY OF PERSONAL TRAGEDY AND CORPORATE BETRAYAL--INSIDE THE SILICONE BREAST IMPLANT CRISIS

by John A. Byrne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 1995

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A haunting case study in corporate recklessness and its consequences. Business Week correspondent Byrne (The Whiz Kids, 1993, etc.) brings to vivid life the human costs of the breast-implant calamity that helped land Dow Corning Corp. in federal bankruptcy court earlier this year. He does so with the cooperation of decidedly unusual sources: John E. and Colleen Swanson. John, the principal architect of Dow Corning's much admired ethics program, recused himself in 1991 from further involvement with silicone implants. At the same time, Colleen, who had suffered agonizing health problems due to the implants, submitted to a disfiguring explantation. Using the moral, physical, and professional torment of the Swansons (who will receive half the book's royalties) as a centerpiece of his narrative, Byrne recounts the almost offhand way in which Dow Corning entered the implant business. He goes on to review how the company (an industrial chemicals enterprise with almost no experience in consumer markets) battened down the hatches at the first sign of trouble. Dow Corning stonewalled injured women seeking redress for the side effects of implants they had been assured were perfectly safe; as a matter of policy, moreover, spokesmen played fast and loose with incriminating clinical data. In time, litigation opened enough in-house files to convict Dow Corning in the court of public opinion and force it to seek the protection of Chapter 11. Byrne provides a thoroughgoing rundown on how an ostensibly righteous corporation risked disaster with actions and reactions that in the aggregate (and in retrospect) look very like misconduct. He also assesses the impact of Dow Corning's fall, e.g., on breast cancer victims who want prostheses. His principal accomplishment, though, is to bring home the issue of stewardship through the anguished eyes of a single organization man and his unfortunate wife. A first-rate take on corporate responsibilityat once disturbing and engrossing. (First printing of 75,000; $80,000 ad/promo; author tour)

Pub Date: Oct. 25, 1995

ISBN: 0-07-009625-2

Page Count: 288

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.