A working mother paints the portraits of five role models: women who combined extraordinary achievement with lasting marriage, to varying degrees of success. In searching for examples to help chart her own life through ``the Scylla and Charybdis of modern womanhood,'' Gabor (The Man Who Discovered Quality, 1990) finds two distinct paradigms: the driven careerist whose work is first on any list of priorities, and the fulfilled professional who also relishes the responsibilities of the home. But it is difficult to know what kind of instruction to take from these life sketches. Gabor begins with Mileva Maric, a brilliant scientist whose romance with Albert Einstein was born in shared discovery only to sour with the birth of an illegitimate child, a reluctant marriage, and a slow decline into bitter divorce. Lee Krasner, a pioneer of abstract expressionism, let her own work suffer in the service of her husband Jackson Pollock's talent and alcoholism. Maria Goeppert Mayer, a 1963 Nobelist in physics, was lucky in having a husband who was always her best collaborator, but she allowed her work to isolate her from her children. Denise Scott Brown's acclaimed urban planning projects have never won her the spotlight despite her essential contributions to the world-famous work of her mate, architect Robert Venturi. And Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor seems to have done it all, raising three sons and rising through the ranks of politics and law, while always managing to have dinner ready on time. Gabor never explains how to apply the lessons of these outstanding lives to the choices faced by average working wives of the '90s, instead resorting to familiar pronouncements on the glass ceiling and the mommy track. Her thumbnail biographies feel superficialeven Scott Brown and O'Connor, who gave Gabor personal interviews, never come to life in a fresh and intimate way. An inspired idea that fails to deliver the optimistic message of progress the author promises.
Pub Date: Aug. 24, 1995
ISBN: 0-670-84210-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1995
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
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
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