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DESERT PLACES

Name: DESERT PLACES
Author: Robyn Davidson
ISBN: 0-670-84077-7

by Robyn Davidson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1996

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An Australian woman spends several harrowing months with desert nomads in the Indian desert, witnessing one of that land's last great pastoral migrations. Davidson (Tracks, 1981) writes in a tradition of self-consciously female Western travel writers like Mary Kingsley. A travel writer in an exotic locale is out of place; a woman is doubly out of place. Davidson plays on that incongruity with a strong sense of the ridiculous, particularly with respect to herself. She consistently concedes the point the Rabari, sheep- and camel-herding nomads, make when they ask why any sane person would wish to join in their stubborn wanderings in the deserts of northwest India. In Davidson's account, their lives are almost unbelievably difficult. But she also makes it clear that she is not an easy person to travel with, particularly since she has not taken the trouble to learn the language of her hosts. Davidson's ability to question her own motives and her right to impose on these nomads allows her to transcend the mundane professional limits of her job, with its book and magazine contracts and the demand for exotic photographs. Addressing a Western audience prepared to listen patiently to any colorful tale of a dying way of life, she often falls back into the Westerner's orientalist vision of the timeless East struggling under the burden of centuries of tradition. But the sheer hardship she encounters often overrides such musings, producing a fresh, frank appraisal of the ingenuity and tough determination of the Rabari, free of condescension, and giving her the opportunity to offer an unadorned account of her own mixed emotions as they sway from disgust with life in India to deep admiration for Indians. Davidson's conventional attempts to generalize about an abstraction called India are much less interesting than her well-told encounters with fascinating, lovable, resourceful people. (16 pages color photos, not seen) (Author tour)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-670-84077-7

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.