A loving account of a family member that will appeal most to those who knew him.
Cutshall (Real Things, 2015) fondly remembers her stepfather and the lessons that he taught her about life.
When the author first met her stepdad, Jean-Luc Nash, in the 1980s, she was only 16 years old and was immediately unimpressed. He was her mother’s third husband, and the teenager assumed that he, as a military man—a graduate of West Point and a decorated soldier who served in the U.S. Army Special Forces—was “chauvinistic.” She also considered him an unnecessary intrusion into what she felt was an otherwise “blissful existence.” However, much to the author’s surprise, Jean-Luc handled her indifference with the “instinctive diplomacy” of an “intrapreneur”—which she defines as someone who “innovates within an existing system that they didn’t build, driven by a larger purpose, and drawn to connect with to others to form a network.” Jean-Luc remained married to Cutshall’s mother for 33 years, until his death, and the author came to cherish her relationship with him, always impressed by how he assumed the role of a “silent leader,” humbly leading by example. From Jean-Luc, Cutshall says, she learned valuable knowledge about courage and responsibility. This brief but often touching remembrance, dotted with personal, black-and-white and color photographs, combines memoir, biography, and self-help. The author collects stories and perspectives from those who knew her stepfather well, including those who attended West Point with him, or later served alongside him. Cutshall’s prose is informal in tone, and the entire book reads like a friendly, intimate conversation. However, this intensely personal, anecdotal account may have difficulty finding a receptive audience outside of its subject’s family and friends. Although Cutshall transcends the personal by relating Jean-Luc’s transformational lessons, the counsel itself is often conventional, if sensible. She does, however, make a convincing case that her stepfather was an impressive man who lived an eventful and heroic life.
A loving account of a family member that will appeal most to those who knew him.Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9787475-4-1
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Gemini Media, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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