A welcome book, of particular interest to Russian historians and bibliophiles alike.
A slightly sidelong but illuminating view of the difficulties of writing recent history in a land still suffering from it.
Yale University Press editorial director Brent (co-author: Stalin’s Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948–1953, 2003) first traveled to Russia in the aftermath of the Soviet regime’s collapse, when it seemed everything was for sale. His goal was the acquisition of Soviet archives, including the personal archives of Stalin, with an eye to producing a series of books, Annals of Communism. To achieve it, he notes, he had to take up smoking and swallow endless shots of vodka. He had to spend money. He had to contend with corruption, anti-Semitism and the continuing apotheosis of a murderous dictator. He also had to develop a special kind of etiquette that, more than anything else, simply signaled respect for the apparatchiks, scholars and intermediaries he had to deal with. By Brent’s account, he did all these things—accomplishing the last by shaking off his press’s insistent lawyer and cutting deals in a rather free-form fashion as the situation dictated. Clearly Brent is sympathetic to the Russians. After all, he writes, he studied the language not just to read Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, but also to understand the lyrics sung by the Red Army Chorus (“People who could sing such songs, I thought, could not possibly be my enemy”). Just as clearly, he possesses the blend of scholarship and entrepreneurship that characterizes a good university-press editor, and any aspiring publisher will find much to learn by following his acquisition of the last tsaritsa’s personal diary and his wranglings with various hands-out souls (“Jonathan, I need money. I have no money. What will I do? What? I have no money”).
A welcome book, of particular interest to Russian historians and bibliophiles alike.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-9777433-3-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atlas & Co.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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