Not a major work, perhaps, but if a minor one, then well done.
The travel memoir of a professional woman on a Grand Tour.
In 1993 Steinbach, Pulitzer-winning journalist and divorced mother, went on a nine-month sabbatical in Europe. "In this, my Year of Living Dangerously, I was . . . wading into the stream of the unknown, accepting whatever the gods had to offer." Her sojourn begins in the Faubourg-St. Germain during a Parisian spring, where she meets Naohiro, a Japanese widower in whom she develops a romantic interest. In London for the summer, Steinbach meets a trio of women who become her nursemaids when she falls ill; she befriends Jean, an Australian psychoanalyst, at Freud’s house and joins her for dinner with the smart set. Steinbach enrolls in a late-summer course at Oxford, learns an important lesson about ballroom dancing from Barry, her pot-bellied instructor, and wanders up and down the Italian peninsula, frequently turning to memories of Naohiro for emotional sustenance and to the words of Freya Stark for spiritual guidance. If the adventure evolves without the higher risk of other kinds of travel (and travel memoirs), and if the dramatic episodes primarily involve civilized exchanges with shop clerks and museum- goers, Steinbach doesn’t make more of getting lost around Brasenose College or of hitting upon the perfect wedding gift for a temporary friend than she can (or should); the book quickly loses its early sense of willed promise and gains a likable, well-mannered modesty as it unfolds—the quiet, nothing-to-it triumph of getting from an unfamiliar airport to a distant hotel.
Not a major work, perhaps, but if a minor one, then well done. (color illustrations, not seen) (Author tour)Pub Date: May 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-375-50188-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 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
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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