bookshelf

THE PUSHCART PRIZE XVIII

Name: THE PUSHCART PRIZE XVIII
Author: Bill Henderson
ISBN: 0-916366-89-8

BEST OF THE SMALL PRESSES

edited by Bill Henderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1993

bookshelf

As little magazines become house organs of university writing mills, talent discoveries become paradoxically harder to make. School styles and trends show up readily enough, but it's the rare piece of new-voice work that seems independent, contrarian, free. This year's Pushcart attests to this flat state of affairs. It's poked-through with almost-first-tier prosework: Alison Deming's ``An Island Notebook''; Tobias Wolff's ``The Life of the Body''; Rick Bass's ``Days of Heaven''; Susan Neville's ``In The John Dillinger Museum''; Rebecca McClanahan's ``Somebody.'' It has some good-enough poems by David Lehman, David Rivard, and Joellen Kwiatek. But even its most notable pieces are sequestered in ivy'd halls: an amusing satire on PC academic-journal names by ``Kothar Wa-Khasis'' (Lowell Edmonds), as well as two poems—one by William Matthews titled ``Note I Left for Gerald Stern in an Office I Borrowed, and He Would Next, at a Summer's Writers Conference''; and one by Marvin Bell, ``Homage to the Runner: Bloody Brain Work''—that come off as everted Mister Chips memos: the life and risky times of creative-writing teachers. (Three clumsy but refreshing bohemian pieces—by David Rattray, Peter Coyote, and the poet who calls himself ``Antler''—provide contrast for the tenured alkalinity here.) Gleanings from an increasingly spent field.

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1993

ISBN: 0-916366-89-8

Page Count: 572

Publisher: Pushcart

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PUSHCART PRIZE XLVIII
edited by Bill Henderson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PUSHCART PRIZE XLVII
edited by Bill Henderson

- BOOK REVIEW
PUSHCART PRIZE XLVI
edited by Bill Henderson

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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.