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AN OCEAN OF TIME

Name: AN OCEAN OF TIME
Author: Patrick Mathiasen
ISBN: 0-684-82252-0

ALZHEIMER'S: TALES OF HOPE AND FORGETTING

by Patrick Mathiasen ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1997

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Alzheimer's patient Louise Billings's monotonous, ``Little do you know, little do you know,'' seems an apt complaint, for as this small collection of sketchy anecdotes shows, doctors know too little about Alzheimer's to be able to offer anything resembling hope. Geriatric psychiatrist Mathiasen has gathered most of his stories from the inpatient psychiatric unit at Northwestern Hospital in Seattle, Wash. Alzheimer's runs in Mathiasen's own family, and his early memories of visits with his father to a stricken aunt, and the fears these visits aroused, helped to shape his desire to understand this mysterious illness. Alzheimer's disease, says Mathiasen, touches on fears that may be even stronger than the fear of death: the fear of losing our minds, of becoming something not quite human. The patients he describes are still very human—singing bits of opera, dancing an Irish jig, railing at a painting by a hated artist. In one story about a mother and her alienated sons—appropriately titled ``My Babies,'' for that is how she sees them—he shows us its power to tear families apart and also to bring them together. In another, ``The Cuban Baseball Team,'' he contrasts the happiness of the patient, who is reliving the best days of his life as a young ballplayer, with the anguish of his family, who are watching his disintegration. Tucked into the stories are some facts about how Alzheimer's is diagnosed and some information about other conditions, such as clinical depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome, that are sometimes confused with it. But readers hoping to have the enigma of Alzheimer's demystified will be dissatisfied; answers simply don't exist yet. Those hoping for comforting insights will be similarly let down. Mathiasen seems to be curiously removed from his patients and their families, to be almost more a voyeur than a caregiver. Altogether a disappointment.

Pub Date: May 1, 1997

ISBN: 0-684-82252-0

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1997

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.