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LOOKING FOR THE LOST

Name: LOOKING FOR THE LOST
Author: Alan Booth
ISBN: 1-56836-065-7

JOURNEYS THROUGH A VANISHING JAPAN

by Alan Booth ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1995

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Three walking tours through backcountry Japan's past and present from Booth (The Roads to Sata, 1986), an English Nipponophile whose capacity for rueful, discerning observation will keep him in the front ranks of travel writers for years to come. In his valedictory work, Booth (who died in 1992) offers day- by-day logs of journeys to a trio of Dai Nihon's out-of-the-way regions. These expeditions are informed by idiosyncratic purposes that allow Booth to move gracefully backward and forward in time in his retrospective accounts. On his first jaunt (in Taugaru), for example, he follows the trail of a dissolute native son named Osami Dazai who made (and wrote about) the same trip in the spring of 1944. Next, the author retraces the route taken by Takamori Saigo, a rebel commander who led his troops on an epic retreat from imperial forces through the wilds of Kyushu in 1877. On a third walkabout, Booth trudges the length of the Nagara River in a vain search for evidence that the Heike passed this way after their defeat at the hands of Genji in the late 12th century. The journey itself is the reward for the author, who accepts that his stated objectives are elusive, if not illusory. Booth considers the ties that bind a high-tech economic superpower to the riches of its cultural heritage, and while he finds the encroachments of industry, love hotels, urban sprawl, and other of civilization's less lovely manifestations a stiff price to pay for progress, he cannot decide whether it's better for an ancient art like Noh to vanish or ``to die and be pickled in formaldehyde.'' Without condescension, the author communicates his sense of loss and that of the resilient residents of the hardscrabble areas through which he passes. Perceptive and rewarding tales of what lies off the beaten track in latter-day Japan. (maps, not seen)

Pub Date: May 1, 1995

ISBN: 1-56836-065-7

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Kodansha

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 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.