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ELIZABETH BISHOP

Name: ELIZABETH BISHOP
Author: Brett C. Millier
ISBN: 0-520-07978-7

LIFE AND THE MEMORY OF IT

by Brett C. Millier ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1993

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Nappy with the sympathy, solicitude, and slightly off-kilter admiration that the fans of Elizabeth Bishop (1911-79) are known for, Millier (American Literature/Middlebury College) delivers a long, detailed life of the woman who wrote contemporary American poetry everyone seemed to respect without ever being able to say quite why. Nor does Millier say exactly why, or even much guess. Bishop's tremendously hard life—her fatherlessness; her mother in and out of mental hospitals; her alcoholism; her bullied apprenticeship with Marianne Moore; her dependence on unstable female lovers; her uncomfortable years living in Brazil; and her general inability to much do for herself—here seems to set up a horrid scrim before which her artistic modesty comes off as a virtue. The poetry's unexceptionable dexterity and precision were accepted by the literary mainstream gratefully (in contrast to Robert Lowell's great loony dramatics, for instance), and Bishop was showered with respect. But respect seemed to nourish her not at all (does it ever?): Her life was scarred by demons, secrecy (she was terrified of being exposed as both a drunk and a homosexual), physical illness, and spiritual vertigo. Bishop's balanced, impersonal poetry reads, in this light, as carefully placed bandages for cosmetic purposes only. Millier clearly doesn't want just to ``rip the mask off'' Bishop; she keeps references to the poetry always well in sight (while almost never dipping in to analyze or even to recommend); and her disaste for scandal and luridness is refreshing. But there's a muddiness here—Bishop is revealed but then covered up again without psychological or literary acuity—that can't quite convince us that Bishop's life or her art matters as much as these pages assume that it does.

Pub Date: March 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-520-07978-7

Page Count: 600

Publisher: Univ. of California

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.