Details magazine's sex columnist, Radakovich (The Wild Girls Club, 1994) has spent too long in the trenches of sex journalism, as evidenced by this utterly unerotic book. Her idea was to travel the country in search of the randiest among us, visiting such lubricious sites as swingers' bars, nudist colonies, and polygamist clubs. But with nothing much to say about any of the behavior she sees, she resorts to poking fun at the paunchier swingers, offering endless jokes about ``packages'' that only a 12-year-old could enjoy, bragging about the men who try to pick her up, or, in a neat contradiction, griping about the men who stare at her. Radakovich (or ``Mistress Anka,'' as she refers to herself) generally hates every place she goes, and if she's not having fun, neither is the reader. She eventually heads to Las Vegas, where she and her girlfriends repeatedly flash their breasts in a feeble attempt at being wild. It's a sad picture of women of a certain age feigning the insouciance of youth, and the reader longs for someone like the much more droll Candace Bushnell to add a little zest and wit to the situation. The only essay that works is the conclusion to the ``win-a-date-with-Anka'' story, when Radakovich eases her relentlessly too-tough stance and admits that her feelings are hurt when the date on whom she has developed a huge crush manipulates and rejects her. A look at America's favorite pastime by a reporter who's lost her edge. (photos, not seen) (Author tour)
Pub Date: April 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-517-70195-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
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
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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