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CHRIST ON THE RUE JACOB

Name: CHRIST ON THE RUE JACOB
Author: Severo Sarduy
ISBN: 1-56279-075-7

by Severo Sarduy ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 10, 1995

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A mostly inscrutable collection of personal epiphanies by the late Cuban novelist and belletrist (Cobra, 1974, etc.). Sarduy's preface hardly clarifies the elliptical fragments that follow: ``They are traces left by things ephemeral.... They constitute a record of things thatsometimes by chanceonce put me in touch with something.'' The brief chapters, most only a few pages long, plumb the author's Cuban youth, his departure for Paris in 1960, his adulthood in France, his wide travels before his death from AIDS in 1993. Sarduy describes a few of his scars; a few of his friendships; the banks of the Ganges at Benares; the iconography of the soul's escape from the dying body; archaic stone monoliths in Brittany; a sexual encounter with a stranger; some memories of paintings (including the huge image of Christ's scourging, seen en route to the Louvre atop a truck, that inspired the book's title); and the atmosphere of Tangier. He also mentions the war in Afghanistan and the Mexico City earthquake, taking horror and delight, respectively, in the behaviors of people under duress. Sarduy juxtaposes memories and images but usually doesn't communicate what makes these combinations revelatory to him; worst of all, when he analyzes his epiphanies, he does so using the oblique, tired jargon of semiotics: ``gesture,'' ``hieroglyphic,'' ``simulacra,'' even ``hermeneutic inadequacy.'' The author was, unsurprisingly, a pal of Roland Barthes, who appears here in one of two memoirs about drinking at the CafÇ de Flore (Bloody Marys for Sarduy, black coffee for Barthes). In fact, much of the book seems to revolve around Sarduy's imbibing, which must have been prodigious; in one early passage, he muses revealingly about how he tries to reproduce the intoxication of the creative act through alcohol. Maybe drunkenness had something to do with the failure of this elusive work.

Pub Date: July 10, 1995

ISBN: 1-56279-075-7

Page Count: 176

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
FIREFLY
by Severo Sarduy & translated by Mark Fried

- BOOK REVIEW
TRIPLE CROSS
by Carlos Fuentes José Donoso Severo Sarduy

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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.