Purportedly revealing compositions of an autistic young man who has been mute since age two; skeptics will view them otherwise. Sellin, who was born in Germany in 1973 and lives with his parents in Berlin, was introduced to facilitated communication when he was 17. In this technique, the autistic person sits at a keyboard while his hand is physically supported and guided by someone else. (The question, of course, is how much influence the facilitator has on the end result.) Sellin's parents kept all the writings he produced in this way and made them available to Michael Klonovosky, a Munich-based journalist who is evidently a true believer in the technique's validity. Klonovosky has selected and edited excerpts from Sellin's work dating from August 1990, when they consisted of simple lists of words (often misspelled), to December 1992, when the following passage was produced: ``there is one thing thats crazy/being in yourself is a dead state/being without yourself is loneliness/neither being in yourself nor without yourself can survive/there are no pure states/there is always change taking place in me/and even in calm times two forces that won't be reconciled are working.'' Unfortunately, Klonovsky's introduction to these writings does not present evidence persuasive enough to win over skeptics. He acknowledges that facilitated communication is controversial but insists that its success rate is ``very high.'' What he does not reveal is just how much physical support and guidance was provided to Sellin, whose mother usually acted as his facilitator. The question remains: Is this the work of a tortured mind, or in fact the product of a parent's self-deception? A theory this debatable requires stronger proof than this book offers.
Pub Date: April 12, 1995
ISBN: 0-465-03172-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1995
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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