A dog conjures feelings in memoirist Knapp (Drinking: A Love Story, 1996) that she had never allowed to surface—the giddiness and vulnerability of full-blown love—and here she endeavors to understand why. To put it mildly, life had hit a rocky patch for Knapp: Her parents had both recently died, walking papers had been served to her boyfriend, and she—d jettisoned her old pal alcohol. In walked a dog, Lucille, a shepherd mix discovered at the local pound, and the rapport was immediate. For someone so “self-protective and locked into routines, so averse to commitment,” Knapp thawed and connected to the dog. But why, she wonders, indisposed to let a sleeping dog lie. What forces allow people to express and experience a love that they might never hazard with another human being? For Knapp it comes down to the “stability of fur”: Given the least chance, your dog will be there for you, accepting and ready to commune, never judgmental. Bookish by nature, Knapp has read and expresses opinions about a wide array of dog writers, from Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson to the Monks of New Skete, and she has been in contact with animal behaviorists and those who claim to communicate with dogs telepathically. And though she chides Masson for relying too heavily on anecdotes, her book is strewn with them, such as chance, telling encounters with folks out walking their dogs. For all the byways Knapp explores—dogs as agents of elucidation, vehicles for self-definition, metaphors for change, objects of indirect communication and projection—she is at her best painting the emotional landscape she inhabits with the one she loves: Lucille. Readers can’t help but feel Lucille is one lucky dog living with the (yes, at times, hyper-) attentive Knapp, who has through her dog learned to invest a relationship with exuberance, humor, and an openness to mystery. (Radio satellite tour)
Pub Date: June 12, 1998
ISBN: 0-385-31698-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1998
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
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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