In this searing memoir, Gordon, noted as a novelist of Catholic lives in America, searches for the truth about her late father—a Jew who converted to Catholicism. Gordon's is an interior journey as well as an external one as she seeks to figuratively disinter her father and resurrect him. She has always been in thrall to the passionate love her father, who died when she was seven, had borne her (he ``was the source of my knowledge that I have been loved unto death''). Gordon brilliantly and ruthlessly anatomizes the blindnesses we allow, the little lies we tell ourselves, so that as children we can idealize, and idolize, our parents. As she enters the realm of memory, she realizes that the father she visualizes as handsome in fact had a mouth bereft of teeth and wore ripped pants to accommodate his growing paunch. When Gordon finally allows herself to look at the truth about her father, David Gordon, the upheaval is doubly wrenching: Not only had she lied to herself, but virtually everything he had told her about himself was a lie, from the year of his birth to his relations with his family. Even worse, she must confront the ugliness of his virulent anti-Semitism. It is fascinating to see this Catholic-raised woman confront her Jewish legacy, one that had previously been entirely negative: Whenever she did something bad, her mother would say, ``That's the Jew in you.'' Her sense of alienation becomes total: ``He has become someone with whom I can feel no connection. And if I am not connected with him, who am I?'' So dense with anguish is Gordon's writing that her emotion rises from the page to engulf the reader. She is like a lost child racing around frantically to find the father she once knew, the man who gave her comfort, who gave her a sense of herself and her place in the world. Beautiful, painful, shocking, a profound exploration of love, memory, shame, recuperation—a remarkable work. (Author tour)
Pub Date: May 15, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-42885-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1996
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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