Capably written but perfunctory pieces that will fail to please any but the most devoted readers.
Mixed essays on matters of life, death, and academia.
Sanders (Hunting for Hope, 1998) opens with a meditation on the loss of loved ones, the inevitable leave-taking of children who grow up to make lives and homes of their own, and the advancing years—events that can easily set a person to wondering what life is all about. He goes on to recount his long-standing concern with scriptural questions, venturing thoughtful readings of biblical passages and offering a few conclusions on the spiritual plane. Some of these are elegant in their plainspoken sincerity: “I no longer believe that Jesus can do our dying for us; we must do that for ourselves, one by one.” Sanders goes on to deliver fine pieces on such topics as the many kinds of wood that make up his Bloomington, Indiana, house (whose patterns, he claims, point to the underlying order of nature) and the importance of diversity in agriculture and culture alike. His energy soon flags, however, and he strays far from the questions of spirit his title promises into hurried, even throwaway essays on the books he keeps in his bedroom and the kind of writing he expects from the college students in his charge. His least successful essays are second-person addresses to his father and other family members (“Whenever I get irritated by the latest corruption or cruelty in the daily news, I remember you grumbling as you read the paper”), epistles that unfold with all the subtlety of a greeting card and lower the average considerably.
Capably written but perfunctory pieces that will fail to please any but the most devoted readers.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8070-6296-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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