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CONVERSATIONS WITH CLINT

Name: CONVERSATIONS WITH CLINT
Author: Kevin Avery
ISBN: 978-1-4411-6586-2

PAUL NELSON'S LOST INTERVIEWS WITH CLINT EASTWOOD--1979 TO 1983

edited by Kevin Avery ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 6, 2011

There are better books on Eastwood, from a more recent perspective, but these fan’s notes reflect extraordinary access and...

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This collection of previously unpublished, exhaustive interviews from three decades ago has a conversational intimacy that reveals as much about the journalist as they do about an actor-director he obviously worships.

The late Paul Nelson was a prescient critic, from his 1960s advocacy of the evolving Bob Dylan through his championing a decade later of the New York Dolls as pre-punk avatars and his late-’70s assessment of Clint Eastwood: “as imaginative and as different as any American director I can name.” This was well before critical acclaim and Oscars started flowing toward Eastwood, who was regarded as a spaghetti western star of limited range (a reactor rather than an actor) and reviled by the left as a Dirty Harry fascist. Readers who associate the veteran Rolling Stone editor-critic so strongly with music might be surprised to learn that his first love was film, and that Eastwood matched him reference for reference as their discussion ranges from Bergman to Kurosawa to Pauline Kael (the influential New Yorker critic who was particularly anti-Eastwood). “This book is a miracle,” says the introduction by Jonathan Lethem (who based an indelibly obsessive character in Chronic City on Nelson), and it’s a miracle that Nelson was unable to perform. Despite 17 hours of interview tape, he never made it past page four in the manuscript for his aborted cover story. Contributing to his writer’s block was his admiration for the artist. Editor Avery, who did a yeoman’s job of making the transcript flow chronologically, writes that Nelson was “as much a fan as he was an objective journalist”—though, in the case of Eastwood and others, Nelson was plainly much more of a fan than objective. Paralyzed by what his subject might think of the story as well as the daunting prospect of way too much material, he wrote little from this and published nothing, leaving the tapes for posthumous discovery.

There are better books on Eastwood, from a more recent perspective, but these fan’s notes reflect extraordinary access and frequent illumination.

Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2011

ISBN: 978-1-4411-6586-2

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Continuum

Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011

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.