by Andrew Todhunter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2004
Has the same flair and expert pacing as the meal. (11 illustrations)
A highly companionable evening spent with Todhunter (Dangerous Games, 2000, etc.) and his wife at the great Parisian eatery Taillevent, where the conversational flow complements the dinner to a T.
As a magazine writer, the author has always taken a hands-on approach, whether the subject was sea-kayaking jumbo waves or swimming under the ice of a winter pond. The same applies here: he spent three months as an apprentice at one of the world’s great restaurants—on familiar ground, in a way, since the kitchen’s breakneck pace, open fire, and ultrasharp knives may well qualify this work as an extreme sport. But Todhunter doesn’t simply recount his days as an apprentice; he frames the story as a meal, with each course setting off digressions to here and there: the history of watercress in French cooking, a guide to cheese shops in Paris, the quality of a sorbet made from frozen champagne. Todhunter is wonderfully enthusiastic about their meal—“Closely read, a good menu is an onslaught,” he writes. “Each word or phrase . . . thumps and shudders like a depth charge in the animal mind”—but guilty, too: “There is something more than a little vulgar about all this, of course, something shameful. . . . Yet here I sit, engorged and exultant.” Forgivable, for this will likely be a one-time event for the one-step-ahead-of-the-taxman author. And we thank him too: for the use of French that fits snugly into the narrative like the flooring of apple slices in a tarte tatin; for the fascinating information on how to boil a pigeon head and how chocolate resembles wine; for keeping a sense of humor amid all the perfection. When the maitre d’ takes a big slug from their expensive demi of wine (a precaution so clients don’t get a mouthful of bad wine), Todhunter gulps: “Some taste, I think, suppressing my alarm. The guy just tossed back fifty francs.”
Has the same flair and expert pacing as the meal. (11 illustrations)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2004
ISBN: 0-375-41085-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2004
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by William Strunk & E.B. White ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1972
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
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
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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