A stocking stuffer for die-hard Burgundians or a gag gift to bring to Wes Mantooth’s holiday party, but nothing more than...
A paean to silly self-regard from the master of the genre, TV anchor Burgundy.
Burgundy is, of course, a fictitious character, the product of comedian Will Ferrell. There’s a Pinocchio moment toward the end of this looping book, full of sound but empty of signification, when he calls it “a novel about my life,” even as he deems the two Anchorman franchise films to date “factual documentaries about myself.” Roll with it, then: Burgundy, a native of a little town in Iowa named for a sectarian murderer and full of people who just didn’t quite have the gumption to head further west, has made himself an enduring star of the small screen, a jazz flautist, dog lover and collector of “authentic replications of Spanish broadswords.” And let’s not forget connoisseur of peaty adult beverages: “There’s nothing so bad on God’s green earth that can’t be made good by a tall glass of scotch.” That may be, but even a fifth of the firth’s finest can’t mask the fundamental so-whatness of this artifact. The satire is broad to the point of micrometer-thinness, the targets all the usual suspects, the put-on chauvinism and arrogance just more of the same for anyone who’s seen the films—and who besides the films’ fans would plunk down the money for this book? Stephen Colbert has done wonders with his similarly broad-brushed character, but this is second-tier stuff. Even if Burgundy (or whoever the writer is) occasionally lands a point, it seems almost accidental, as when Burgundy senior tells his anchor-boy son, “Ron, sometimes people don’t want the truth. They just want the news.”
A stocking stuffer for die-hard Burgundians or a gag gift to bring to Wes Mantooth’s holiday party, but nothing more than that.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8041-3957-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
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
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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