by Kathryn Brettell ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 2, 2015
A refreshing autobiography from a spirited woman.
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A woman searches for happiness despite lifelong, life-threatening abuse in this debut memoir.
Brettell and her sister, Debbie, lived with their mother following their parents’ divorce in the late 1950s. Not long after, their mother remarried, and according to the author, the girls’ new stepfather proved to be a violent man. He invented reasons to beat the girls, she says, and sexually assaulted Debbie; her mother took her to the hospital to ensure that she wasn’t pregnant. Despite the abuse, the girls’ mother stood by her husband’s decisions and allowed his tyranny to run the house, Brettell says. By the time the author entered high school, her guidance counselor there had learned about Brettell’s treatment at home, and arranged for her to graduate early. After graduation, the sisters roomed together, struggled to find work, and questioned whether they were intelligent enough to attend college. Brettell found herself thrust into marriage with a cowboy who eventually gave her a life on a ranch, which satisfied her love of animals. However, he also developed a love of firearms and exhibited violent, strange behavior, she says, even when he was in the presence of their two young children. Eventually, the author saved enough money to divorce her husband and became an accountant to support her small family. At 34, she met the man who would become her second husband at a church dance; he was persistent and possessive in his courtship, she says, though unloving in demeanor. Overall, Brettell demonstrates a cinematic command of her story. She intersperses chapters about past events with segments relating therapy sessions. These sessions create a rhythm within the memoir and serve to point readers to the various ways in which Brettell’s past and initial abuse enabled a later, violent, near-death experience. The author relates painful events, but often does so in an optimistic, encouraging tone. She understands hard work and adaptability, and readers witness how frequently she’s willed her life to move forward—in her career, her education, and her love life. This isn’t a victim’s tale; rather, it’s a guide to survival.
A refreshing autobiography from a spirited woman.Pub Date: May 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9861929-0-6
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Jazz Dog Press
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
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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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
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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