A vivid sketch of a lively, wonderfully hospitable, but utterly lost society under the heel of religious tyranny.
Not a holiday in hell, but no fun-filled romp, either: Canadian journalist Wearing dons the veil and wanders through the mostly barren Iranian countryside “because it frightens me; because it frightens the world . . . [and] I don’t believe in fear.”
She may not believe in fear, but she’ll permit herself a white lie: her Iranian sojourn is not a honeymoon. She is, in fact, not married to her traveling companion, a gay male writer identified only as Ian. Although the pair have been friends for many years, they’ve heard that post-revolutionary Iran is no place for a single woman traveling alone. So, with a gaudy wedding ring on her finger, a good buddy (whom she grows to detest) at her side, and a stifling black polyester Islamic hejab covering her from head to toe, the author endures interminable bus rides, bureaucratic imbroglios, grim hotels, and restaurants where cockroaches clean the plates. But she also finds she has only to struggle with her Farsi phrase book, express frustration with her hands, or glance at a distant landmark for English-speaking Iranians to hop out of the dusty shadows, almost desperate to provide her with food, shelter, conversation, and transportation to faraway shrines. From the gentle Islamic cleric whose hands were boiled in oil by the Shah’s torturers to the (Christian) American missionary whose face is scarred by beatings from the religious police, her hosts are passionately curious about Canada and the West, but they remain proud of the degradations they have endured. Giving only passing attention to the shrines and tourist sites, the author whines incessantly about how stifling, awkward, and physically demeaning her hejab is—as her personal discomfort becomes (she hopes) a metaphor for the physical, mental, and cultural torments Iranian women continue to endure.
A vivid sketch of a lively, wonderfully hospitable, but utterly lost society under the heel of religious tyranny.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-312-26181-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Picador
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2000
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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