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AT THE TOMB OF THE INFLATABLE PIG

Name: AT THE TOMB OF THE INFLATABLE PIG
Author: John Gimlette
ISBN: 1-4000-4176-7

TRAVELS THROUGH PARAGUAY

by John Gimlette ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 13, 2004

On the one hand, no one should go to Paraguay without this book; on the other, despite Gimlette’s evident, though admittedly...

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Paraguay the Peculiar—dazzlingly, murderously peculiar—is described through time and space from all points of the geographic and moral compass.

“Paraguay is not merely isolated,” remarks English travel-writer Gimlette in his debut, “it is almost impenetrable.” Caged in by poisonous jungles, boiling rivers, deserts, and endless marshland, it is a difficult country to get to, a piece of landlocked insularity. A fitting port-of-last-call, then, for all manner of time-warped creatures: Nazis, White Russians, New Germans, New Australians, old Anabaptists, with all of whom the author will find time to wag a chin. Gimlette is only passingly interested in the riotous, frangipani landscape; people fascinate him, and Paraguay will throw one character after another for him to field, from the mad-dog to the grandparent-sweet. Introductions came from every quarter, since Asunción’s million inhabitants “maintained the illusion that everybody knew each other, that there was a commonality of purpose, a quiet confederacy.” Or not so quiet, for Paraguay’s history (and if there’s one thing this writer likes more than a good jaw, it’s a dose of history) is far from sleepy. It is full of horrific wars and, thanks to its long seclusion, home to “all the different shapes and sizes of tyranny.” Feudal, agricultural, revolutionary socialist, Napoleonic, or just plain bizarre, the dictatorships culminated in the vile and brutish General Stroessner, who ruled from 1954 until 1989 and was the kind of guy who thought it might be colorful to have Josef Mengele living in-country. Gimlette expertly marshals the politics and personalities onto the stage and off as their stories brush up against his travels and encounters. He reveals a disheartening continuity; the economy is still a “merry roundabout of contraband,” and the government is still “dispensing malice.”

On the one hand, no one should go to Paraguay without this book; on the other, despite Gimlette’s evident, though admittedly acquired fondness for the place, why go at all? (16 pp. color and b&w photos)

Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2004

ISBN: 1-4000-4176-7

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
ELEPHANT COMPLEX
by John Gimlette

- BOOK REVIEW
WILD COAST
by John Gimlette

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.