A good anthology for an afternoon’s reading in the park.
A leisurely stroll through the park with some agreeably literary companionship.
Though each of the pieces focuses on Central Park, editor and literary agent Blauner (editor: Brothers, 2009, etc.) observes of the millions who consider this their favorite spot in New York, “Ask what all of those people love most about Central Park, and you will almost never get two alike answers. Such is the vastness, the diversity, the wonder of this place that plays so many different roles to so many different kinds of people.” Much is made in the selections of the diversity of people drawn to the park, but the voices selected for inclusion make it read something like a special issue of the New Yorker (which has published many of these writers). More than a third of the pieces were previously published, including an excerpt from a novel by Paul Auster, a fable about “The Sixth Borough” by Jonathan Safran Foer, a letter from Wall Street Journal columnist Marie Winn to Holden Caulfield and the title essay from Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York. As the writing ranges over decades as well as acres, many of the writers see the park as a microcosm of the city. Adam Gopnik notes, “There is always a new New York coming into being as the old one disappears.” Safran Foer: “It’s hard for anyone, even the most cynical of cynics, to spend more than a few minutes in Central Park without feeling that he or she is experiencing some tense in addition to the present.” There are repeated references to the zoo, to Jackie Onassis jogging, various sports and the occasional mugging, but there are also celebrations of the park as a cultural hub as well as a natural resource. One of the most incisive observations is secondhand, by Andy Warhol as conveyed by Susan Cheever: “It was better to live in the city than the country because in the city he could find a little bit of country, but in the country there was no little bit of city.”
A good anthology for an afternoon’s reading in the park.Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60819-600-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
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
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