In a broad-ranging collection of essays on mathematics, theoretical physics, philosophy, literature, and religion, Gardener has a panoramic view from the shoulders of such giants as Einstein, William James, and L. Frank Baum. When a best-of collection spans almost 60 years, several disciplines, and a prolific output of books and articles for the New York Review of Books, Scientific American, and the Skeptical Inquirer, the odds are it will be stimulating, informative, and even contentious. Gardner's is, naturally, and his own personal touches—a sense of humor equal to his curiosity, for instance- -match his talents for smooth prose and clear encapsulation. In such an intellectual potpourri, Gardner's mind may appear slightly contradictory: He defends relativity in physics but not relativism in anthropology, accepts quantum mechanics's paradoxes but not Newcomb's paradox of free will, and takes proofs for Nothing (or at least the null set) but not for God. Gardner proves skeptical but never close-minded, a realist in his epistemology, a Platonist in his mathematics, and a theist in his religion. Such a character of course wades into debates on relativity, superstrings, cosmology, and artificial intelligence, and iconoclastically investigates the gullibility of William James and Sigmund Freud. He also has some lucid speculations on Time, Nothing, and Everything and sprightly essays on invented languages, James Joyce, and Georges Perec. And he includes whimsy, such as his again-timely spoof of Reaganomics's warped Laffer Curve, a combination burlesque of T.S. Eliot and mathematical conundrums, and a pseudonymous, sardonic review of his own The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener (1983). If Newton was, as he said, like a boy playing on the seashore of an undiscovered ocean of truth, then Gardner too has amassed an impressive shell collection. (line drawings not seen)
Pub Date: July 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-14380-X
Page Count: 672
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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