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TO CATCH A TARTAR

Name: TO CATCH A TARTAR
Author: Chris Bird
ISBN: 0-7195-6506-5

NOTES FROM THE CAUCASUS

by Chris Bird ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2004

“Had no one in the Kremlin or the power ministries read Tolstoy?” Bird asks. Evidently not. Readers innocent of the Caucasus...

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An eye-opening account of the long-running war between Russia and Chechnya.

A decade ago, as former British freelance journalist Bird’s account opens, that war was being waged in the streets of Moscow, as Chechen gangsters battled over turf and Muscovite landlords posted signs that instructed “those who were LKN—the insulting Russian initials which stand for those of ‘Caucasus National Appearance’—not to bother enquiring.” Successful in transferring as a news stringer to Chechnya proper, Bird finds the war a far bloodier reality there, as Russian troops try to suppress an independence movement that, in one form or another, has been resisting them for 400 years. In Grozny, Bird encounters the legendary leader and sometime president Jakhar Dudayev, who enjoys the role of philosopher king (Q: “Not one state officially recognizes the Republic of Chechnya. Doesn’t this disturb you?” A: “I’m completely calm, you’re not mistaken. It wouldn’t be worth having a complex over this”). The war that Bird details is bloody, messy, unnecessary, and with a logic of its own; Russian commanders ignore orders from Russian President Yeltsin commanding them to stop bombing civilians, while Chechen fighters resign themselves to accepting the constancy of slaughter; as one remarks to Bird as Russian columns advance into Chechnya, “Of course there will be a partisan war. It’s very simple—either we die fighting or, as you can see . . . we die anyway.” Die they do, as do Russian draftees by the hundreds. The carnage continues: as Bird notes, after having been fought to a draw, the Russian Army invaded Chechnya anew in 1999, which Bird likens to an American president’s resuming the war in Vietnam in 1978. Yeltsin’s successor, Vladimir Putin, has put the task of breaking the country in the hands of the KGB’s secret-police descendants. And the war goes on, in Grozny and Moscow and points between.

“Had no one in the Kremlin or the power ministries read Tolstoy?” Bird asks. Evidently not. Readers innocent of the Caucasus will learn much from his pages.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2004

ISBN: 0-7195-6506-5

Page Count: 320

Publisher: John Murray Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2004

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.