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LETTERS OF TRANSIT

Name: LETTERS OF TRANSIT
Author: André Aciman
ISBN: 1-56584-504-8

REFLECTIONS ON EXILE, IDENTITY, LANGUAGE, AND LOSS

edited by André Aciman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1999

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In these distinct and forthcoming original essays, five prominent writers offer their meditations on exile and memory. The authors represented in Aciman’s (Out of Egypt: A Memoir, 1995) collection are a varied lot—a not atypical sampling of men and women who have found their way to the US from around the world: Aciman, an Alexandrian in exile via Paris; Eva Hoffman, a Pole in exile via Canada; Bharati Mukherjee, a Bengali in Berkeley; Edward Said, a Palestinian exile via Egypt; and Charles Simic, a Yugoslav exile of 1945 vintage. These voices of exile are unusually eloquent ones. All five authors are non-native speakers who write professionally in English. For them, the common duality and instability of exile are heightened by the very nature of their work. Aciman puts it well: “their words . . . are the priceless buoys with which they try to stay afloat both as professional thinkers and human beings.” The five essays differ in tone and style. The collection begins with Aciman’s lyrical and imaginative essay on a park in New York that reminds him of the places of his past, or his “shadow cities,” and reaches its gravest moments in the heavy seriousness of Said’s reflections on his professional and personal journey in America, with frequent references to Adorno. Hoffman examines the contradictions inherent in nomadism and diasporism, referring to her own life and those of other East European literary figures such as Nabokov, Kundera, Milosz, and Brodsky. Mukherjee, coming from a different perspective, writes about the process of immigration in the US as “the stage, and the battleground, for the most exciting dramas of our time.” Aciman made the right choice in closing with Simic’s poem “Cameo Appearance” and his droll essay on his youthful exile and on the speed with which exile teaches the arbitrary nature of an individual’s existence. A thoughtful and diverse collection with a distinctly literary bent.

Pub Date: May 1, 1999

ISBN: 1-56584-504-8

Page Count: 128

Publisher: The New Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
HOMO IRREALIS
by André Aciman

- BOOK REVIEW
FIND ME
by André Aciman

- BOOK REVIEW
ENIGMA VARIATIONS
by André Aciman

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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.