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IN A GREEN SHADE

Name: IN A GREEN SHADE
Author: Allen Lacy
ISBN: 0-618-00378-9

WRITINGS FROM HOMEGROUND

by Allen Lacy ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2000

cultivate. (line drawings throughout)

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Highly opinionated rambles through a variety of gardens, most of them his own, from horticulturalist and curmudgeon Lacy

(The American Gardener, 1988, etc.) Gathered here are cuttings from Lacy’s quarterly letter (Homeground), 84 short pieces covering an array of topics and grouped by season. Most of them are reports of gardening adventures and meditations on Lacy’s quarter-acre of southern New Jersey turf—as snug and sensual and safe a little harbor as ever there was. He has a cottage garden and a woodland garden, and both are arenas of engagement—intellectual, philosophical, ecological, moral—where Lacy thrashes toward some understanding of beauty and life’s purpose as experienced through gardening. It is not enough for him to simply like a holly bush; he wants to know its background, which leads him into geology and botanical history and how the plant got here from there. If he likes a plant, he sings its praises with lucidity and restraint (for Lacy is buttoned-down and generally reticent), though on occasion his coverage of some subspecies or other reads like a laundry list. If he dislikes a plant or a gardening notion, he gives it the blade, but always with an authority that rings through as clear as a bell—as in his intelligent response to the all-or-nothing, native-versus- exotic plant debate—even when he is in his most priggish mood: "By now, readers may possibly detect some slight snobbery on my part. I confess it." And how. Yet he is not devoid of humor, as he demonstrates with considerable wit when poking fun at, say, the errant pomposities of plant catalog prose (where Katherine White once found fascinating eccentrics, Lacy finds deceitful nincompoops). Lacy’s garden, like his mind, is a fine mosaic of whimsy and understatement, and a provocation for readers to go forth and

cultivate. (line drawings throughout)

Pub Date: April 14, 2000

ISBN: 0-618-00378-9

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2000

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.