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SPEAK SUNLIGHT

Name: SPEAK SUNLIGHT
Author: Alan Jolis
ISBN: 0-312-14050-9

by Alan Jolis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1996

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Fond but unarresting memoir of novelist Jolis's (Mercedes and the House of Rainbows, 1988) childhood vacations in Spain. Jolis grew up in Paris, where his American parents employed a squabbling Spanish couple as cook and butler. The exuberant, earthy, pumpkin-shaped Maruja and the wispy, taciturn, forever put-upon Manolo served as surrogate parents to Jolis and brought him home with them for a series of summers in the early '60s. Maruja and Manolo kept a house by the Atlantic in northern Galicia as well as an apartment in Pamplona; Jolis also had relatives in Madrid and Vigo, and the memoir jumps from place to place and year to year with deliberate vagueness. One evening in Madrid, Jolis's suave Uncle Joaqu°n dragged the boy along with Maruja and Manolo on an entertaining bar crawl. In Maruja's dirt-poor home village, Jolis accompanied her up a mountain to the deathbed of a relative and watched the flamenco dancing of his female cousins with lustful appreciation. In the book's most sustained and successful set piece, Jolis evokes marvelously the delirium of Pamplona during the San Ferm°n festival: Having watched the running of the bulls from a window as a younger child, at 13 Jolis befriended a charismatic 19-year-old Basque who initiated him into the pleasures of drinking all night, running before the bulls at seven a.m., and sleeping until evening, when the bullfights begin. At times like these the memoir can be captivating. But while Jolis draws telling portraits of characters and places, one constantly yearns for some kind of narrative structure: The author is virtually mute about the facts of his life beyond this hazy succession of summers, and nowhere does he suggest how his experiences have influenced him. Not utterly unworthy as an exercise in nostalgia, but only intermittently does it speak with the lyricism Jolis aspires to.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-312-14050-9

Page Count: 192

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 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.