Though Starr fails to develop great intimacy with her reticent subject, her biography, the first of the gifted pop star, will delight lang's legions of fans. k.d. lang is the androgynous lesbian animal-rights activist with the incredible voice who has captured mainstream success against all odds. Starr, producer of a radio program on women in pop, chronicles lang's development from her early days in Eastern Alberta, Canada, to her emergence as a performance artist/singer and kitsch country star. Supplementing apparently limited access to the singer with interviews of friends and others, the author chronicles the maturation of lang's style from ``new progressionalist torch and twang'' to her more recent ``post- nuclear cabaret'' sound and answers questions fans have yearned to ask. Why the lower-case name? The youthful lang was a fan of e.e. cummings. Does lang really think she's the reincarnation of Patsy Cline? Yes and no. And what prompted lang to reveal—to the delight of her lesbian fans—that she too is gay? A desire for candor as much as anything else. Starr provides detailed analysis of lang's abortive experience with Nashville, a city the singer had sworn that she would reform. Considering her unfortunate outburst—a sweeping criticism of country music and its capital when the music she made there failed to gain radio play—the author suggests that if lang had been more diplomatic and possessed greater knowledge of the genre and its history, success could have been hers. The book closes with speculation about lang's love life (unsubstantiated liaisons with Madonna, Martina Navratilova, and Ingrid Caseras), which shows that the singer does a laudable job of retaining some privacy. That quality accounts for the book's lack of immediacy. Fans will have to turn back to lang's music to restoke their ardor, but they'll have learned a lot here.
Pub Date: June 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-312-10928-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1994
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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