A zippy reminder of what we've all thankfully escaped.
The creator of the short-lived but highly praised TV series Freaks and Geeks takes us on an enjoyable tour through some of the more vivid scenes of tortured 1970s adolescence in the American suburban landscape.
Gifted with a remarkable ability to remember the specific and singular torments of youth, Feig presents a collection of essays about a smorgasbord of incidents that should be familiar to anyone who has experienced life before age 18. There is the botched first kiss, the alternating boredom and misery of a single little-league season, the inevitability of a derogatory nickname based on his last name (Feig got off easy with “Fignewton” in elementary school, but by middle school had been dubbed “Fag”). The author plays it all for laughs, whether he's detailing the challenges of getting his matter-of-fact parents to whip up an elf costume for the elementary-school play (all costume elements were gleaned from his father's Army-Navy surplus store), or taking a frighteningly “fast” girl to the Christmas dance (she drinks, vomits, and then expects a kiss). Feig spares himself no humiliation, relaying with great gusto his discovery of masturbation during rope-climbing day in gym class, and his brief fascination with cross-dressing, which ended abruptly when his mother was in a car accident and, with no time to change, he had to appear at the scene in full drag. Though not much of a stylist—“I've never been much for sports” is a typical opening line—the author has a dead-on sense of timing and detail. Delivering any sort of message is secondary to getting a laugh, but Feig does convey the absolute bewilderment of being a kid who cannot automatically accept the countless social conventions that seem unquestioned by his peers.
A zippy reminder of what we've all thankfully escaped.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-609-80943-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Three Rivers/Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2002
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
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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