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THE LAST BARBARIANS

Name: THE LAST BARBARIANS
Author: Michel Peissel
ISBN: 0-8050-4534-1

THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOURCE OF THE MEKONG IN TIBET

by Michel Peissel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 1997

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Potentially fascinating rambles in remote Tibet are trashed by Peissel's (The Secret War in Tibet, 1973, etc.) chest-thumping and gratuitous opining. A longtime Tibet fancier, Peissel travels back to the roof of the world to search for the headwaters of the Mekong, mother river of Asia, which flows 2,800 miles from its gathering in a back-of-beyond mountain spring to the South China Sea off Vietnam. This adventure takes him to Tibet's Nangchen—``remotest, largest, most secretive of the many little kingdoms of the much-feared Khamba tribes,'' a frigid high-altitude desert with staggering sweeps of land, egg-size hail, its own particular animals and plants and climate. Seeing this, readers might reasonably expect a scintillating portrait of that fabulous, little-known landscape (if not a measure of humility before the colossal nature of it all). What you get instead, between snippets of self-pity at the difficulty of the journey, is Peissel's collected pensÇes on the poverty, the unworthiness, the general vileness of the human species, except for those heroes who reach beyond mediocrity to purity and the hard life (Peissel sounding much like Wilfred Thesiger at his worst), among whom he seems to count himself. By turns, Peissel is ridiculous (his definition of ``discovery'' is shamefully self-serving), pompous (the source of the river was ``a place that everyone before me failed to find''—Europeans that is, as if the Tibetans were so much chopped liver), territorial (he leaves his mark to establish that he was there first), superior (``Weepers lose, say the Tibetans, and I, for one, agree. I prefer to join the eaters and drinkers''). Finally, he is vulgar: Upon reaching the source, he and his pals ``celebrated [their] victory over the Mekong'' after having ``conquered'' the river. The only thing that blows harder than a high Tibetan wind is Peissel himself. (8 pages color photos, not seen)

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1997

ISBN: 0-8050-4534-1

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1997

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.