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SLOW DANCE

Name: SLOW DANCE
Author: Bonnie Sherr Klein
ISBN: 1-879290-15-4

A STORY OF STROKE, LOVE, AND DISABILITY

by Bonnie Sherr Klein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998

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The diary of a stroke from its frightening first symptoms to the successful return to a productive—but transformed—life. Klein is a former documentary filmmaker and an active feminist. On vacation with her doctor-husband, she began to have problems with balance, swallowing, and speaking. Her husband read the symptoms (correctly) as trouble in the brain stem but didn’t know the cause. They rushed through the night to his hospital in Montreal, the start of a four-month hospital stay that culminated in radical brain surgery on a congenital tangle of blood vessels in the brain stem that had finally begun to bleed. During most of that time, the author was what the doctors called “locked in,” conscious and aware, but unable to speak or move virtually anything but her eyes (through which she saw double). For a time, only her husband, and sometimes her teenage children, were able to fully understand what she needed. This book is a combination of her own memories and journal entries, plus interviews with her family, friends, and caretakers, some of whom were less than caring. Three years of intensive rehabilitation followed, including alternative therapies. She was able to finish a film and even promote it, but she also discovered that the world was not kind to the disabled. Finally accepting that she would never be physically as she was before, she made friends with an electric scooter dubbed Gladys, launched a radio show, and is an activist for the disabled. She credits friends, family, work, and the fact that her husband’s profession gave her a special edge in her recovery. Klein offers a straightforward and detailed account of her road back; her sharp observations on the obstacles facing disabled individuals (bathrooms are all important) are more effective advocacy than a more highly charged polemic might be. (For another account of a stroke, see Robert McCrum, My Year Off: Recovering Life After a Stroke, p. 1092)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998

ISBN: 1-879290-15-4

Page Count: 320

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1998

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
BEEP BEEP BUBBIE
by Bonnie Sherr Klein ; illustrated by Élisabeth Eudes-Pascal

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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.