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MARRIED TO THE ICEPICK KILLER

Name: MARRIED TO THE ICEPICK KILLER
Author: Carol Muske-Dukes
ISBN: 0-375-50711-6

A POET IN HOLLYWOOD

by Carol Muske-Dukes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 20, 2002

Narrow and uneven, but soaring in spurts.

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Sixteen essays on the place of poetry in the cultural and physical landscape of Southern California.

Despite the title, being married to “the icepick killer” (actor David Dukes, who died in 2000) is not actually the focus of these musings by poet Muske-Dukes (Literature and Creative Writing/Univ. of Southern California). Rather, she is bent on “considering the influence of the manufacture of powerful images on the idea of the subversive,” with the subversive here being poetry. The city of Los Angeles, specifically its isolation, works well for Muske-Dukes, since “alienation is the real home of poets.” Yet the scattered, media-obsessed population of this sprawling burg embraces poetry—and creative writing in general—to the extent that billboards plastered with quotations from Dickinson, Eliot, and Bukowski appear along the freeway. The author presents the literary history of Southern California as evidence that this love hasn't occurred in a vacuum, but quickly moves on to offer recent specifics about some piquant situations created by the collision of poetry and film. Hired as a consultant on the WWII film U-571 starring Matthew McConaughey, she and fellow poet Stephen Yenser are asked to provide “poetic” words to be uttered over the final scene of the shipwrecked crew. (What a surprise: it didn’t work out.) Poetry and politics also make a curious mix: the author reports on a 1998 gathering of 50 poets at Clinton's White House, where the president's face lit up at the mention of Seamus Heaney. Interspersed are a graceful brace of essays about how Muske-Dukes met her husband, how their careers resonated, his thoughts about acting, and the epitaph from Shakespeare (“Let me play the lion too”) she and their daughter chose for his gravestone.

Narrow and uneven, but soaring in spurts.

Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2002

ISBN: 0-375-50711-6

Page Count: 208

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2002

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
CHANNELING MARK TWAIN
by Carol Muske-Dukes

- BOOK REVIEW
LIFE AFTER DEATH
by Carol Muske-Dukes

- BOOK REVIEW
SAVING ST. GERM
by Carol Muske-Dukes

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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.