Ellison's Invisible Man is our finest, perhaps only really major Negro novel; certainly a literary marker of the last decades. His second book, a collection of essays written over various periods, some when quite young, some as recent as last year, is a rather modest affair. As an essayist Ellison lacks Baldwin's electrical displays, his almost formalized fury; he is sober where Baldwin is dramatic; the prose is more muscular, the insights are intellectual rather than emotional. The pieces do present, however, an autobiographical accounting and the themes, extending from jazz and blues to literature and folklore, are much engagements with a writer's mind as they are facets of a writer's experiences. Here is the confrontation between "outlaw" culture and official culture, between, in fact, Negro America and America as a whole. Especially telling is the inclusion of a Library of Congress address in which Ellison notes his artistic journeyings (the influence of Malraux, the inspiration of Wright, the Marxist phase, his Oklahoma background, etc.); equally noteworthy are a Paris Review interview and two first-rate appraisals of Charlie Parker and Mahalia Jackson. A polemical rebuttal top Irving Howe re social protest and esthetic integrity is as spunky and as topical as anyone could wish.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1964
ISBN: 0679760008
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1964
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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