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THE JERUSALEM SYNDROME

Name: THE JERUSALEM SYNDROME
Author: Marc Maron
ISBN: 0-7679-0810-4

MY LIFE AS A RELUCTANT MESSIAH

by Marc Maron ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 9, 2001

It’s a fast line of patter, but, as Maron would say, it’s only rock ’n’ roll, man, only rock ’n’ roll.

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Billed as a bright light in the “alternative” branch of standup comedy, Maron has inflated his signature performance piece into a coming-of-age memoir. It’s not exactly Everyman’s story, but it might be Someanxiousjewishman’s story.

Throughout the hipster text, beginning with his unappetizing dedication, the author seems to confuse his reader with his therapist. He seeks, with indifferent success, to engage the audience in his search for his identity through drugs and delusions and a trip home to Albuquerque. Certainly all comics get their best material from within, but Maron’s resolute attempt to mine his navel for laughs leads to more flop sweat than you may care to watch. His defensive protest—“I don’t want you to judge me. I don’t want you saying, ‘The book was interesting, but he had a drug problem’ ”—is rendered disingenuous by his juvenile angst and youthful service as a Beat acolyte. There follow the potent magic powder purveyed at the Comedy Store and the aggression of the late Sam Kinison, Maron’s demented former belief in world domination by secret societies (including an admittedly droll bit on the Founding Fathers as Illuminati-Masons), and a trip to the Holy Land mediated through a Sony camcorder. Despite his weak grasp of theology, this boomer class clown, in faithful accordance with the Jerusalem Syndrome—a widely-recognized phenomenon in which susceptible visitors to the religious capital assume the guise of important Old or New Testament personalities—waited for instruction from the Almighty but failed to land a prophet gig. His trip to a cigarette factory and his tour of the Coke museum give evidence of truly good reporting, but the self-absorption threatens, like a black hole, to swallow all.

It’s a fast line of patter, but, as Maron would say, it’s only rock ’n’ roll, man, only rock ’n’ roll.

Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2001

ISBN: 0-7679-0810-4

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Broadway

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
WAITING FOR THE PUNCH
by Marc Maron & Brendan McDonald

- BOOK REVIEW
ATTEMPTING NORMAL
by Marc Maron

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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.