An uneven barrage of life stories by turns hilariously candid and self-consciously flippant.
Brazen dispatches on the life-altering effects of childbirth and motherhood on a woman with a stern “reluctance to be a responsible adult.”
In 2008, actress and author Mollen (I Like You Just the Way I Am: Stories About Me and Some Other People, 2014) discovered her “accidental pregnancy” with her then-boyfriend, actor Jason Biggs. A neurotic tangle of anxiety and insecurities at 28, she writes of contemplating abortion but saw, for the first time, an actual future and a family plan with Biggs, whom she eloped with soon after. Though she miscarried, her second pregnancy was successful. Mollen’s melodramatic misadventures and life lessons in new parenting populate the remainder of this candid exercise in unfiltered adulthood. Whether taking ayahuasca in the Peruvian jungle with Chelsea Handler, ghost-proofing a new house, or impulsively venturing to Morocco to meet the weavers behind her pricey Beni Ourain rug, Mollen’s opinionated anecdotes are outspoken, often vulgar, and intermittently entertaining. Her rhetoric is not a cuddly, softhearted tribute to motherhood: recreational drugs played a role in her first pregnancy, and negotiations for threesomes aren’t uncommon during date night. Most of these incidents seem drafted for maximum comical effect, and some strain to achieve it, but there are a few true motherly moments that resonate as “part of an emotional, painful, joyous journey [the author] was finally happy to take.” Once born, did baby Sid really hold the power to vanquish Mollen as the “fun-loving woman-child” she’d considered herself to be? Sure, and she believes that to be a good thing: it was truly time to grow up. Nevertheless, even a life beautifully enriched by a child couldn’t dampen her effortlessly snarky outlook on kids, love, marriage, and Tinder.
An uneven barrage of life stories by turns hilariously candid and self-consciously flippant.Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-385-54069-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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
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