A portrait out of time true to the author’s vision about the force of belief.
British travel-writer France (Bad Times in Buenos Aires, 1999) seeks to understand how the Spanish view themselves and their country.
There is more than just a little of Quixote in the Castilian mindset, she suggests; as a political theorist writing during Cervantes’ time noted, Spain is “a nation of enchanted people who live outside the natural order.” Of course, what France finds during two extended sojourns in the country, as a student in 1988–89 and again during a passage through Castilian towns in 1998, is more complex than that. Yet there is a fascinating interplay between the value and interpretation of truth throughout Spanish history that bears an uncanny resemblance to Quixote's sortie against windmills. Among her examples: the Spanish state’s trumping-up of a threat from the Moors, the nation’s chimerical wealth during the reign of Philip II, the Church’s solace and oppression, the mirage of fundamental change during the Republic, when independent institutions of democracy and compromise never took hold, even France’s own self-deluded relationship with a radical young Peruvian during her schooldays. This is not only an extended psychic evaluation of the Spanish anima; there are also stunning and intimate descriptions of Salamanca, Avila, Toledo, Burgos, and Segovia, often enough accompanied by descriptions of strange personal encounters. Yet whether talking of Quixote or the transvestites who live across the street, the author is most interested in coping with life's complexity and uncertainties, considering whether it might be best to follow the example of Quixote and “create a philosophy, a pattern, and force yourself to follow it. If others reject it, so much the better—you can consider yourself misunderstood, but in the right.” France herself has no urge to be judgmental; she loves Spaniards too much, with all their idiosyncrasies and peccadilloes.
A portrait out of time true to the author’s vision about the force of belief.Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2002
ISBN: 1-58567-292-0
Page Count: 243
Publisher: Overlook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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