What good fortune it is to be back in the saddle with Cahill, letting him take the heat while we look over his shoulder.
Three decades of getting himself into strange circumstances and harm’s way haven’t slowed down Cahill (Pass the Butterworms, 1997, etc.), as this new collection of adventure-travel pieces attests.
Like a glass of Puligny-Montrachet, Cahill is peerless. His intents—to bring back reports of adventure and peculiar doings in the field—are entertaining and provocative if seemingly mad, the locales often murderous in mores ways than one, while the writing, with its low humor and sneaky insights, is pure pleasure of its own kind. This gathering of 30 articles (from National Geographic Adventurer and elsewhere) has all of the author’s talents on display: his gift for the apt simile, however crude (“Like Cuban toilet paper, Tommy the Turk doesn’t take shit off anyone”); his knack for inflating and puncturing his subjects—himself included—in one breath (“Bob Perkins is perhaps America’s best-known atlatl maker and theoretician. This is not to suggest in any way that he is universally respected”); his facility for leads that will kindle interest in any reader (“It was a money-laundering scheme for rapacious dimwits and hoggish simpletons”); and, best of all, his stamina, allowing him to write the whole story with the same artful brio. He’s ready with advice on traveling with strangers: “If he acted recklessly in seriously terrifying situations—I’d just make myself scarce and let him deal with the fallout. Jerks die.” He’s out there, reporting from the remote—chasing the rumor of a Caspian tiger; outfoxing a Malian warlord for a chance to visit a godawful salt mine; encouraging a class of third-graders to behave like forest gorillas; letting salt-hungry bees in the Congo feast in his armpits—reminding us that outlandish acts of travel and experience are still available and, in the most elemental fashion, vivifying.
What good fortune it is to be back in the saddle with Cahill, letting him take the heat while we look over his shoulder.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2002
ISBN: 0-375-50766-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
