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YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE

Name: YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE
Author: Steven Nicolle
ISBN: 978-1460238981

WAITEREXTRAORDINAIRE - THE EARLY YEARS (1979 - 1996 )

by Steven Nicolle ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2014

A bit unpolished, but a quick-moving account of a nomadic life.

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In this debut memoir, a Canadian man looks back on his 17 globe-spanning years in the hospitality industry, from bartender to maître d’.

In the two years between dropping out of school and taking a bartending course at age 20, Nicolle had held more than 25 jobs, including janitor, truck driver and assembly-line worker at an automotive plant and a wallpaper factory. He’d flunked tests for the police force and the Armed Forces. So why bartending? Nicolle liked to travel and he liked to drink; he hoped to meet girls; and “After all,” he writes, “I figured that I only live once.” This decision led to a life of rootless travel; on leaving Canada, he writes, “It would be ten years before I owned another car. Eight years before I would have my own address again. Ten years before I would own any furniture.” Bouncing from country to country, ski resort to private club to cruise ship, hard-working Nicolle improved his skills along the way, such as learning French and taking a Cordon Bleu pastry course. Not all of his decisions were successful, such as his attempt to join the Canadian Navy (he washed out in basic training). But often Nicolle’s gambles paid off, as with working at an exacting Swiss hotel: “[M]ost of all I learned that when it comes to service there is never any room for excuses.” Nicolle does a good job weaving his tangled back-and-forth travels into a coherent narrative and is especially interesting when talking about the nuts and bolts of what bartenders, waiters and maître d’s actually do. The memoir could use some editing (for example, eliminating unnecessary use of the phrase “you could say”), and Nicolle can be overly offhand; a funny waiter “would have us bent over laughing so hard. Some of his jokes I still remember to this day.” Well? Usually, though, Nicolle’s conversational style works, and he has some good, pithy lines to offer: “In Switzerland, perfection is a requirement.”

A bit unpolished, but a quick-moving account of a nomadic life.

Pub Date: June 16, 2014

ISBN: 978-1460238981

Page Count: 144

Publisher: FriesenPress

Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

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.