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INTIMATE NATURE

THE BOND BETWEEN WOMEN AND ANIMALS

A splendid, multihued collection of writings by women on their kinship with animals, edited by Hogan (Solar Storms, 1995, etc.), Metzger (Writing for Your Life, not reviewed), and Peterson (Sister Stories, 1995, etc.). While it might be argued that women haven't exactly been foreigners to the study and appreciation of creatures in the wild, as this collection suggests—Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, Diane Ackerman, Gretel Ehrlich, and Terry Tempest Williams all readily spring to mind, and all figure in this anthology (not to mention Rachel Carson, who doesn't)—there is no debating the editors' main point: Women have a lot of fascinating and important things to say about the dialogue between species, and they deserve more page space. Included here are reports from the field, poems, ruminations, interviews, short stories, and formal essays, from the rigorously scientific to the sacred and spiritual, many displaying the revived interest in ``ancient indigenous intellectual and religious traditions.'' Speed past the half-baked introduction by the editors: ``animals have been the source of our connection with the world all along''; and the casually tossed off comment that ``what women have brought into the equation is a respect for feeling and empathy,'' which snubs the work of Frans de Waal, Jeffrey Moussaief Masson, and Harry Green, among others. Move on to instead the material that doesn't have an agenda other than writing purely and with disarming clarity about a woman's experience with animals. Enjoy Vicki Hearne's tale of pit bull justice on Venice Beach, Charlotte Zoe Walker's mesmerizing story on the healing power of goats amid the memories of political torture, and Leslie Silko, Alice Walker, Ursula Le Guin—77 contributions, all told. These are, indeed, stories of an intimate nature: sensuous, unsparing, carefully mulled, razor sharp.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-449-91122-5

Page Count: 464

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1997

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NUTCRACKER

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

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

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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