The emphasis here leans more to Karen than to Richard, the acknowledged brains behind their arrangements. Their story is classic Americana, in both success and failure: two clean-cut kids from the suburbs who just love to make music together hit it big, and when Richard develops a pill addiction and Karen hits a low of 78 pounds, Coleman lays the blame on their overbearing and undemonstrative parents. To this day their mother insists that there was no psychological reason behind her daughter's starvation, believing instead that ``Karen was simply gripped by an iron determination to get very thin and stay that way.'' Coleman also traces Karen's problems back to early negative media comments about their ``square'' appearance amid the wild atmosphere in the music industry of the late-60's. While he keeps insisting that the group was never bland, Coleman's anecdotes reinforce the plain-toast image: their reproducing, note for note, the arrangements from their records when performing live; changing lyrics—e.g., ``sleep with you'' became ``be with you''—so as not to sully Karen's good- girl image; and proudly appearing at the Nixon White House in 1972. It is true that at the time of Karen's death relatively little was known about anorexia nervosa, but the eating disorder has since become familiar, and Coleman's glancing treatment of it reveals little that is new. A dual-celebrity bio that retells well-worn stories.
Pub Date: April 13, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-018345-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1994
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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