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INSIDE OUTSIDE

Name: INSIDE OUTSIDE
Author: Andrew Riemer
ISBN: 0-207-17398-2

LIFE BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

by Andrew Riemer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 2, 1994

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Riemer, a thoughtful Australian critic and professor (English/Sydney Univ.), turns to autobiography, presenting a literate, considered work with a curious evasion. Born in Budapest in 1936 to well-to-do parents, Riemer arrived in 1946 with mother and father in provincial Sydney, a displaced person with no knowledge of English. That lack, and confusion regarding the manners and mores of the antipodeans surrounding him, promptly landed him in a class for incompetent students, where he started his cultural osmosis into the world down under. His well- crafted narrative, despite the local argot (``the chocko-covered dunny under a superb jacaranda'') and references to writers often best appreciated by the locals, is finally cosmopolitan. A visit to his birthplace 44 years after leaving it acts as a Proustian madeleine that unleashes memories of a half-remembered past and fully prolix ruminations. Child of a secular Jewish family, later confirmed as a communicant of the Church of England, Riemer, in his tale of assimilation, ultimately depicts a human Mîbius strip; there's no inside, no outside, just a continuum. His analyses of Mittel European lifestyle, the meaning of citizenship, a migrant's disorientation, and the effect of memory, true or false, are fine. But one wonders through to the end of the book: What happened during the reign of the Nazis and then the Russians? How did the Riemers survive well enough to revive a subscription to the opera and later to make the first-class voyage to the other side of the globe? (There is a photo of the author's father in military uniform in 1942, but how did he contrive to get into and out of the costume?) The writing about cultural identity couldn't be nicer, but unavoidably one is left with a lingering disquiet because, despite veiled references to a world of brutality left behind, the otherwise frank autobiographer never describes the transcendent facts of his Central European life. (8 pages b&w photos)

Pub Date: Dec. 2, 1994

ISBN: 0-207-17398-2

Page Count: 232

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1994

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.