Adroit blend of personal reflection, science, and history that presents the heart as no mere pump but as the seat of the...
The mystique of the human heart and its role as the brain’s emotional and psychological counterbalance.
Poet, essayist, and memoirist Siebert (Angus, 2000, etc.) has been preoccupied by this subject for much of his life. A classmate dropped dead of a heart attack in the third grade, and the extremely religious Siebert, who had accidentally taken communion with a full stomach at a Friday mass dedicated to the adoration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, was convinced this divine punishment had been meant for him. The author’s father had a poorly understood disease of the heart muscle later identified as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a condition often linked to a genetic mutation, which caused his death in 1980. Siebert himself at age 23 experienced dizziness, shortness of breath, and a rapid heartbeat, the onset of what he calls “my cardiac Dark Ages.” Hearing about a National Institutes of Health study of families with HCM, he tracked down the researchers, learned more about the disease, visited an HCM family participating in the study, and then opted not to find out whether he carried the mutant gene. These events, his experiences researching the heart, and his description of the public dissections performed at the University of Padua in the 16th century are deftly woven into an account of a heart transplant Siebert observed in 1998. The doctor in charge permitted the writer to accompany the medical team as they removed the heart of a brain-dead woman in Newark, packed it in a picnic cooler, and carried it to New York City’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. To his surprise, Siebert was allowed to watch as surgeons removed a patient’s diseased heart and replaced it with the healthy one. To his even greater surprise, he found his right hand touching the beating heart in the patient’s open chest, an unforgettable and moving moment.
Adroit blend of personal reflection, science, and history that presents the heart as no mere pump but as the seat of the human soul.Pub Date: April 13, 2004
ISBN: 0-609-60221-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2004
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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