A message for avid computer users from the author of The Cuckoo's Egg (1989): Get a life. Stoll, a 15-year veteran of the electronic information age, appears to have reached a stage of burnout that most computer junkies pray they will never see, and the result is a cranky meditation on how better to spend one's time. A strong plot was the key to the author's bestselling first book (about a computer spy ring), but here we find only ramblings from someone who sounds half the time like a technical writer and half the time like a hip graduate student with a thesis statement to prove. Stoll wastes an inordinate number of pages driving home the point that it's nicer to experience a sensation than it is to view a representation of it on your monitor. Advised in tones that suggest a revelation that exploring a cave, visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and stargazing are more satisfying than punching in commands at the keyboard, readers may well wonder what on earth makes the author think them so misguided. There's no pleasing Stoll as he surveys cyberspace. For example, he slams most Usenet bulletin-board messages as futile, then complains that the messages are not catalogued. He has had it with e-mail, he announces—well, maybe it has something to do with his holding down six different online accounts. Stoll does provide some jollier moments, mostly in the form of truly wacky footnotes (in which we learn things like how to nail Jell-O to the wall) and in all-too-brief passages that herald back to his salad days of besting evil computer hackers. A staunch defender of library books and card catalogs, Stoll takes noble ideas and swamps them in a morass of overzealous grouching. (Author tour)
Pub Date: April 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-385-41993-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
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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