A season at a remote Spanish seacoast where Gibson (The Miracle Worker; Two For the Seesaw) came to find his wandering 19-year-old son at Maharishi International University and, mirabile dictu, joined up for a course on "creative intelligence" and "cosmic consciousness" — the end reward promised to the disciples when they have put in enough hours meditating, "rounding" and memorizing the Master's cryptic utterances. In the company of these neat and clean-shaven young seekers, Gibson allows himself the indulgence of Sanskrit chants, mantras and spiritual-physical exercises whose purpose is to cleanse the soul of "impurities" and "unstress" the psychic knots. To be fair, Gibson does express an occasional doubt ("it startles me how much abdication of self there is in these kids") yet what most impresses him is the new-found serenity of the erstwhile freaks and acid heads. That, and "my own soul's opening to benevolence," and by semester's end he is drawing diagrams which unite the artist's creative energy with Maharishi's mystical schemata of the universe and expounding on the manifest and the Absolute with the best of them. None of it was especially manifest to us, and even Gibson's usually graceful prose is not up to coping with transcendental "oneness." A metaphysical ramble which is difficult going even on its own terms. Uninitiates less tolerant than Gibson may find the discipline preparatory to enlightenment a new and distressing form of totalitarianism — even if everyone around the Maharishi wears a beatific smile.
Pub Date: June 1, 1974
ISBN: 0689106157
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1974
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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