Any river-lover would envy Adams’s project, but following his route would surely be more satisfying than reading his work.
Impressionistic essays about the New River, its history, and the people who make their lives around its course.
Kentucky native and All Things Considered host Adams (Piano Lessons, 1996) is much enamored of the New River, a small waterway that—counterintuitively—flows north from North Carolina to West Virginia, winding through the territory of Adams’s personal history. With “a wish to understand more about this part of the country and [his] family’s past,” Adams sets out to row, bike, and drive the 350-mile length of the New, chronicling the communities and people he meets along the way. The characters on the water are memorable, ranging from Mary Draper Ingles (who in 1755 survived capture by the Shawnee to escape and walk all the way home from Ohio equipped only with a tomahawk and a couple of blankets) to a fellow who currently makes his home in a school bus that is perched on an enormous rock outcropping in the middle of the river. It is the landscape, however, that is the most compelling character, as Adams’s work is strongest when he focuses on his surroundings. In general, the essays are much like glimpses of the banks from the middle of a swift-flowing stream: a collection of impressions divorced from context with little to link them. Adams writes in very short snippets, confounding the reader’s sense of narrative and momentum. He may be aware of this himself: He assures the reader that “If you go, I promise you’ll find a much deeper story,” and includes latitude and longitude information at the head of each chapter in case one should choose to make the journey along the New.
Any river-lover would envy Adams’s project, but following his route would surely be more satisfying than reading his work.Pub Date: April 17, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32010-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2001
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
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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