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STRONG SHADOWS

Name: STRONG SHADOWS
Author: Abigail Zuger
ISBN: 0-7167-2916-4

SCENES FROM AN INNER CITY AIDS CLINIC

by Abigail Zuger ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1995

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Truly compelling portraits of eight AIDS patients, written by a physician gifted with compassion, humor, and an eye for telling detail. Zuger, an infectious-disease specialist who spends Wednesday afternoons at a New York City AIDS clinic, says she would have liked to mount a camera in a corner of her examining room, point it at patients, and let it run. What she has done is far better. Her portraits are brilliant distillations, showing not simply what a camera would see but what she observes and intuits about her patients and what is going on in her own mind as she connects with each one. Each patient is described in series of visits, often months apart. There's the demanding, wily Deborah, who is probably selling her prescriptions (for tranquilizers as well as AZT and other drugs) on the street; toothless, cheerful Michael, on 17 different medications; hostile Cynthia, for whom hospital stays give respite from an overwhelming home life; itching, coughing, hyper Eddie, too busy caring for his family to take his own pills; Anita, whose manners are so perfect, she can't ask for help; clever Shannon, who gets a lot of attention pretending to have AIDS; and finally Nancy, HIV-positive but asymptomaticexcept for all the woes that afflict her at night when she remembers her husband's death from AIDS. Besides portraits of unforgettable human beings, Zuger give us a picture of poverty medicine in a world where long waits for short visits with the doctor are the rule; where child care, food, and shelter are pressing everyday issues; and where drugs are a way of life. She asserts that some of the best AIDS medicine in the country is practiced at shabby urban clinics like the one she describes. If they are staffed with doctors like her, that statement seems quite believable. Powerful and rewarding. (Author tour)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-7167-2916-4

Page Count: 244

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1995

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.