Fast claiming his place as one of the country's finest natural history writers, Pyle (Thunder Tree, 1993) takes to the hills in search of Bigfoot in this absorbing, classily written field report. Sasquatch, Dzonoqua, Oman, Bigfootthat short-necked, beetle- browed creature with a bad case of BOhad caught Pyle's fancy when he was in college 25 years ago. Was it a relict species of Gigantopithecus, the huge Pleistocene primate of southeast Asia, or ``just a modern manifestation of the medieval Green Manthe wild counterpart to our domestic selves that all folks seem to need''? Or something else altogether that roams the deep-wooded parts of the Pacific Northwest? Pyle treks through the wilder stretches of that realmthe roadless area along the Dark Divide, the deep woods of the Indian Heaven Wilderness Area, any area with Bigfoot credentialsand though he never meets the beast, he does come across some mighty big footprints and hears eerie, unidentifiable screams in the night. He meets with Bigfoot professionals and eccentrics, quizzes the local and Native populations about their perspectives on the big guy, combs government documents for clues. All along the way, Pyle sings the glories of the land, its birds and butterflies and snails and stones. And there are plenty of times when he comes across environmental desecration: dirt bike gouging of fragile trails, trash strewn about, and the hideous consequences of clear-cutting a forest. By the end of the book, Bigfoot has become for Pyle an indicator specie, a synecdoche: a wild creature, no doubt, but also testimony to the wildness of the place. If the Bigfoot drama is ever laid to rest, cautions Pyle, all the way-backcountry will likely be gone as well. Pyle makes all the right connections. Best of all, he loves a good mystery and is smart enough, open and radical enough, to never say never. (Author tour)
Pub Date: July 27, 1995
ISBN: 0-395-44114-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1995
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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