As with all of Kaplan’s work, solid journalism combines with a gloomy sense of history to produce a worthy study.
More travels to difficult places in search of future geopolitical nightmares.
Kaplan (The Coming Anarchy, 1999, etc.) has carved a journalistic niche writing about collapse and decay; if there’s a new Rwanda or Kosovo in the making anywhere on the planet, the chances are good that Kaplan’s been there and reported on it. Here he takes on three smallish geographical areas that, taken together, add up to a big swath along the soft underbelly of Eurasia, and trouble is brewing throughout; looking deep into history, the author defines his area of concern as “a volatile region where the cultural legacies of the Byzantine, Persian, and Turkish empires overlap.” The first section of his account, which he deems a sequel to his fine 1993 study, Balkan Ghosts, examines the continuing fragmentation of southeastern Europe, not so much along ethnic lines (although ethnic struggles play their part) as along zones of influence (with Hungary, for example, drawn ever closer to Russia, and Romania hungering to free itself from Russia and become a part of the happy Western family of nations). His reportage from Sofia, Bucharest, and Budapest is literate and sharply drawn, as is his whirlwind tour of Turkey, where he sees hope for increased democratization and stability in the face of growing fundamentalist intransigence elsewhere in the region. With the death of Syria’s Hafez Assad, the subsequent analysis of the Middle East may already be dated, but the account of changing Israeli and Palestinian relations is valuable. The weakest portion is the last, which suffers from a hurried feel; Yo’av Karny’s exceptional new book, Highlanders (see below), is much better, although readers who follow international events will want to take notice of the author’s checklist of flashpoints in the Caucasus—which includes war between Iran and Azerbaijan, conflicts over a planned trans-Caspian pipeline, and other excuses for bloodshed.
As with all of Kaplan’s work, solid journalism combines with a gloomy sense of history to produce a worthy study.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2000
ISBN: 0-375-50272-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2000
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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