Koppel calls his diary “bread crumbs in the woods . . . marking the trail of how we got to wherever it is we are.” To anyone...
The perceptive, articulate anchor of Nightline records his observations, thoughts, annoyances, and memories in a daily journal of the closing year of the century.
Koppel (Nightline, 1996) begins, and ends, 1999 filled with hope and foreboding. He records his reaction to Clinton’s impeachment, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, and shootings in American public schools, as well as his pleasures in such private moments as a family birthday celebration or the visit of a grandchild. While focusing on the present, he occasionally reminisces about his English boarding school and its stringent ways. It’s current events, however, that absorb Koppel, who examines both their significance and their coverage by the media. He ponders the changing nature of television news, the public’s much-vaunted “right to know,” the role of radio shock-jocks, and the shrinking coverage of foreign news. From time to time he takes readers behind the scenes at Nightline, going twice with his crew to the Balkans, visiting two California women’s prisons, and journeying to New Hampshire during the primary campaigns. His datelines are from his various homes (two in Maryland and one in Florida); Washington (where Nightline originates); numerous American cities (where meetings and speeches take him); Ireland (for a biking tour organized by Disney’s Michael Eisner), and cities throughout the Mideast and Greece (where he and his wife vacation). A veteran traveler, Koppel has some wry comments on airline shortcomings that will not win him friends in that industry, and his deadpan report of repeated efforts to get caller ID on his home phone won’t please phone company executives either.
Koppel calls his diary “bread crumbs in the woods . . . marking the trail of how we got to wherever it is we are.” To anyone hungry for literate, thoughtful, and thought-provoking commentary on our times, however, it is a whole satisfying loaf, crust and all.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2000
ISBN: 0-375-41077-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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