A rewarding study by a first-rate arts writer.
Erudite extended essay about C.S. Lewis’s classic fantasy series, the meaning of reading in childhood and the author’s internal landscape.
Salon.com co-founder and staff writer Miller first entered Narnia some 40 years ago, when a second-grade teacher handed her a copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Raised in a large Catholic family in California, she found a new world inside that novel and its six companions; she imagined she must reach Narnia or die trying. Naturally, she outgrew that feeling, but could never erase the powerful impact that Lewis (1898–1963) had on her youthful imagination. Revisiting the books as an adult, she was horrified to discover that the Chronicles of Narnia contained Catholic doctrine disguised as storytelling. Still, she could not let go of her childhood favorite texts without at least trying to move beyond her skepticism about organized religion. Sorting through her conflicted reactions, Miller realized what she disliked about the Chronicles as an adult could not eclipse what she had loved and would always love about the stories. The author’s intellectual and emotional journeys come together nicely here. The chapters on Lewis’s texts will be rough going for those who haven’t read the Narnia books, but Miller’s vivid plot summaries, enhanced by her accomplished literary criticism, could possibly bring every member of her audience into the loop. Her intellectual biography of Lewis, doled out in fragments across the chapters, is less successful. Nonetheless, Miller’s insights about the Oxford don are sometimes stunning. She notes, for example, the temptation to call Lewis misanthropic, but adds, “he liked people well enough—as long as he believed they were a lot like him.” Other authors, Tolkien in particular, receive Miller’s scrutiny as well, but always in relation to Lewis and his imagined world.
A rewarding study by a first-rate arts writer.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-316-01763-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
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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