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PRISONER OF SEX

Name: PRISONER OF SEX
Author: Norman Mailer
ISBN: 0917657594

by Norman Mailer ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 1971

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Disingenuously shocked to find himself cast by Women's Lib as the archetypal male chauvinist pig, Mailer takes on Kate Millett (Sexual Politics, 1970) and her sister furies. He wins hands down as literary tribune for Henry Miller and D. H. Lawrence, rescued from Millett's scissors-and-paste butchery though hardly exonerated despite the "barbaric yawp of utter adoration for the power and the glory and the grandeur of the female of the universe." Mailer himself doesn't yawp; he is ready and willing to be contrite; he will buy the groceries and wash dishes, the double standard is indeed noxious, and women ought of course to be allowed self-expression. But. . . honesty compels him to avow his own mystical adoration of femaleness. Deftly, he turns the table on the 'liberal technologist' 'Left totalitarian' ladies of the movement: Masters and Johnson, plastic dildoes, genetic engineering are signposts on the way to the "loss of sex polarity" — this to the Prisoner represents the true dehumanization and heaven help us all. No, the transcendent divine "awash in the great ocean of fuck" must be preserved at alt costs. Smug and snug he gives a virtuoso performance certain to enrage the emancipated still further.

Pub Date: May 27, 1971

ISBN: 0917657594

Page Count: 266

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1971

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
SELECTED LETTERS OF NORMAN MAILER
by Norman Mailer edited by J. Michael Lennon

- BOOK REVIEW
MIND OF AN OUTLAW
by Norman Mailer ; edited by Phillip Sipiora

- BOOK REVIEW
THE CASTLE IN THE FOREST
by Norman Mailer

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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.