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IDOLS OF THE GAME

Name: IDOLS OF THE GAME
Author: Robert Lipsyte
ISBN: 1-57036-154-1

A SPORTING HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CENTURY

by Robert Lipsyte & Peter Levine ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1995

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A collaboration between one of our finest sportswriters, New York Times columnist Lipsyte, and one of the premier academic sports historians, Levine (Michigan State Univ.), tracing the history of American sport through the lives of 16 of its most important icons. It ought to be a blockbuster. It isn't. The basis for a six-part series to air this fall on TBS, Idols, at its best, is studded with insights into the awkward relationship between sport and commerce, an all too increasingly friendly embrace that is beginning to look like a death grip. By retelling the familiar stories of 16 sports heroes and heroines, the authors trace the growth of that embrace while also charting changing American attitudes toward African-Americans and women. American sport is powered, they argue, by ``twin engines . . . money and macho,'' from the last bare-knuckle championship on the North American continent, in which the great John L. Sullivan outlasted Jake Kilrain, to Martina Navratilova's farewell to Wimbledon. The book deals intelligently with the class, race, and gender barriers that are as thoroughly imbricated in sport as in the rest of society and offers some useful correctives to many legends (not merely the self-consciously silly posturings of the ``Win one for the Gipper'' speech but, more important, the real nature of George Gipp's football-mercenary career at Notre Dame). But Lipsyte and Levine often are forced to oversimplify both sports and political history in an effort to shoehorn more material into their essays, and the choice of the profile as vehicle proves unsatisfying, with many judgments that would make sense in a broader context reading like a parody of political correctness when placed in these TV-sized capsules. Lipsyte and Levine mesh well together, and it would be great to see them write a real, comprehensive social history of American sport.

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1995

ISBN: 1-57036-154-1

Page Count: 368

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE TWIN POWERS
by Robert Lipsyte

- BOOK REVIEW
THE TWINNING PROJECT
by Robert Lipsyte

- BOOK REVIEW
AN ACCIDENTAL SPORTSWRITER
by Robert Lipsyte

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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.