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THE ROBBER OF MEMORIES

Name: THE ROBBER OF MEMORIES
Author: Michael Jacobs
ISBN: 978-1-61902-196-9

A RIVER JOURNEY THROUGH COLOMBIA

by Michael Jacobs ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 2013

A well-rendered travelogue and a profound excursion into what it means to remember and forget.

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Tragedy stalks the periphery of an acclaimed travel writer’s eerily hypnotic journey deep into the heart of Colombia’s most mysterious river.

A few years ago, buoyed by a blessing from the great Gabriel García Márquez, the author decided to seek the source of the legendary Magdalena River in a tugboat. With Alzheimer’s already claiming his father's life and his mother's life now also nearing its end, the strangely languid tributary so closely tied to disappearance, loss and forgetting had come to represent an intensely personal pilgrimage that the author found he could simply not ignore. The result is a lushly written account of that ethereal experience. Throughout the journey, the potential for danger patiently laid in wait. The author provides both the complicated history of his parents and the nation of Colombia, and the hero of this often harrowing adventure was never quite convinced that the smart thing to do wasn't to just give up and abandon the quest. “The place filled me with an energy that magically dispersed the uncertainty of the past few days, together with that persistent sense of being on a journey towards some inescapable tragedy,” he writes. The Magdalena, it turns out, in addition to its lore of lost memories, is actually home to a hotbed of Alzheimer’s, and the author hoped investigating it would help him better understand the scourge that destroyed both his parents’ lives—and someday might also visit his as well. The river, with its own languid pace, was not about to give up its secrets so readily, however. This is a tortured part of the world with a tragically bloody history of political and economic strife involving guerrilla bands, paramilitary outfits and the army. Jacobs had to navigate through all of it in the hope that his memories would somehow endure.

A well-rendered travelogue and a profound excursion into what it means to remember and forget.

Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-61902-196-9

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Counterpoint

Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.