Well-known novelist and short-story writer Adams (also this year's Best American Short Stories editor—see above) reflects on a lifetime of vacationing in Mexico. What is it about Mexico, Adams wonders early on, that so intrigues North Americans? For some, the phrase "south of the border" connotes "a cheery, cozy, somewhat infantile, villagey place"; for others—Malcolm Lowry for one—it "is mad, surreal, and dangerous." The question is an interesting one but, alas, Adams—a master of subtlety—never really addresses it directly. Instead she attempts to reveal the country's paradoxical nature through adroitly delineated scenes of her own daily, and often mundane, encounters there: having a drink at an upscale hotel, visiting an out-of-the-way beach, putting up with an annoying accordionist during dinner. Adams is not as interested in description or narrative as she is in character and innuendo, and the book is filled with one short stylish scene after another. In Zihuatanejo, Adams and "R." rendezvous annually with a rather mysterious older couple; in Campeche, she develops (apologetically) an antipathy for her maid ("her painted-on eyebrows, her small, hostile unintelligent eyes"). Sometimes this low-key, diarylike method works extremely well, and, as Jan Morris notes in her introduction, Adams's "apparently ingenuous jottings turn out to be more calculated than they seem." All too often, however, we are left hungering for more. Adams's hints and suggestions, which in a novel could reveal character, seem insufficient to tackle the inner workings of an entire nation. She also includes far too many details of the mechanics of travel—missed buses, bad meals, hassles with taxi drivers, etc. Adams approaches travel writing with the same mannerly, elliptical style that distinguishes her fiction. The results are mixed.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0671792776
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1991
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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