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NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE

Name: NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE
Author: Sari Botton
ISBN: 978-1476784403

WRITERS ON THEIR UNSHAKABLE LOVE FOR NEW YORK

edited by Sari Botton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 14, 2014

A pleasantly diverting love letter to the iconic city.

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Recollections of life, love and subway rides.

In Goodbye to All That (2013), all the contributors were women. In this sequel, along with women—e.g., Rosanne Cash, Elizabeth Gilbert and Whoopi Goldberg—Botton has invited men, including novelist Alexander Chee, journalist Jason Diamond, founding editor of The Rumpus Stephen Elliott, and Elliott Kalan, head writer for the Daily Show. The essays feature memoirs of assorted New York experiences: growing up, arriving, moving from apartment to apartment, working, finding love, breaking up and occasionally getting mugged. Many writers born elsewhere saw Manhattan as a bright beacon of liberation and reinvention. “I discovered this was the best thing about New York,” writes novelist Patricia Engel, a New Jersey native, “you could run away every day if you wanted to and still find yourself in a newly incarnated version of the city. You never had to be the same person.” New York Times technology reporter Jenna Wortham came and left New York, with sometimes a decade between residencies. She had to learn, she writes, “the calculus and physics of knowing where to walk and at which exact moment to avoid clipping strangers.” Movie references recur in these essays, particularly Woody Allen’s, whose romantic evocations represented an alluring, glamorous dream of life in Manhattan. New York Times Magazine culture editor Adam Sternbergh writes that the idea of New York can become, for a new arrival, “as elusive as a great party you were thrilled to be invited to, yet for which you now realize you lost the address.” As can be expected, the collection is uneven, with a few long, self-indulgent pieces; a few haphazard musings; but several fresh, thoughtful pieces, such as novelist Kathleen Hale’s “Quit Everything,” advice given to her by a psychic; and historian Rachel Syme’s paean to “ESB” (that is, the Empire State Building).

A pleasantly diverting love letter to the iconic city.

Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014

ISBN: 978-1476784403

Page Count: 256

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: July 26, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014

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.