Lives up in every way to the power of its almost magical subject.
Sparkling debut from adventuresome journalist Zoellner, who traveled the world to tell the dirty, glorious and sometime bloody story of diamonds.
When his fiancée returned her engagement ring, the author’s disappointment led to a meditation about the stone it held. Where do diamonds come from? His account of journeys undertaken to answer that question suggests it’s better not to know. From mining to manufacturing, trading to smuggling, marketing to purchasing, it’s difficult to find a single stage in a diamond’s provenance not riven with exploitation, deceit, suffering or delusion. The hardest substance found in nature, a girl’s best friend, the jewel in any potentate’s crown, an essential accoutrement of today’s rapper, diamonds have historically exerted a fascination and power out of proportion to their scarcity (they’re not particularly rare) or intrinsic worth. Zoellner explores how we pour our values—for a variety of reasons economic and romantic—into these glittering rocks. First excavated in India, diamond deposits have since been discovered in South Africa, Brazil, Canada, Angola, even Arkansas. With on-the-spot reporting from each of these locales and detailed portraits of individuals whose lives have been shaped by the quest for and business of diamonds, Zoellner follows a tortured trail all the way to the ring finger of an expectant bride. En route, he offers fascinating details about the geology, craftsmanship, advertising, economics and politics surrounding the gems. Looming over the tale is the specter of De Beers, the giant cartel whose long, ruthless grip on the industry has only just begun to loosen as a result of newfound natural deposits and increasing competition from makers of synthetic diamonds. Perhaps all those sordid details he acquired helped Zoellner, four years after his heartbreak, finally decide to sell back his engagement ring to a jeweler.
Lives up in every way to the power of its almost magical subject.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-312-33969-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2006
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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