One of England's preeminent (and most prolific) postWW II novelists recounts his early life in this reserved but affecting memoir. For most writers, their vocation comes early and undoubtedly. Not so with Sillitoe (Out of the Whirlpool, 1988, etc.): Everything in his childhood seemed to weigh against writing. Born in Depression-era Nottingham to a destitute working-class family (think D.H. Lawrence, but darker still), he could expect little from life beyond a job on a local assembly line. He failed several high school entrance exams, and at the age of 14 he was bright and curious, an avid reader, but with no particular drive or ambition. However, he did have an inchoate urge to see the world. This led him to the RAF and service in Malaysia as a wireless operator. Though he enjoyed the air force, he chose not to reenlist and was all set to muster out and continue drifting when he was diagnosed with that most literary of diseases, tuberculosis. Recovering in the hospital, he suddenly and somehow found his calling and began devouring all the great books he'd missed . . . and began to write. Upon his discharge, he moved to Spain and devoted himself full-time to literature. Eight years and four unpublished novels later, he finally found success as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner were published to staggering acclaim. While all this is expertly narrated and makes abundantly clear the autobiographical roots of much of Sillitoe's work, the least satisfying element of this memoir is, paradoxically, Sillitoe himself. Perhaps it is his British reserve, but he allows us few glimpses of how the events of his life have adhered to his soul, so that, as a character, he seems flat and underrealized. Such reticence aside, this is a fine and memorable work, a testament to the powers of literature to reshape a life.
Pub Date: Sept. 23, 1996
ISBN: 0-00-255570-0
Page Count: 278
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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