DAVE HILL DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE

Name: DAVE HILL DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE
Author: Dave Hill
ISBN: 978-0-399-16675-4

by Dave Hill ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 10, 2016

Hill makes an amiable companion, and if his stories aren’t earth-shattering, his unforced humor is worth a few chuckles.

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An unassuming and amusing collection of essays that touches lightly on the modest events of a believably undramatic life.

Raised in the suburbs of Cleveland, Hill (Tasteful Nudes: ...and Other Misguided Attempts at Personal Growth and Validation, 2012) presents his current self as “some apparently hard-to-categorize combination of a comedian, writer, and musician who was living quite comfortably, thank you very much, in a rent-controlled fifth-floor walk-up studio apartment I was illegally subletting from a buddy of mine.” The author rambles between memories of his childhood and his present experience, both in New York and helping his 82-year-old father settle into a retirement community after his mother’s death. Hill is his own favorite subject, with his father coming in second. The volume opens with the funeral of the author’s mother—“kind of like a wedding, only slightly less awful in that there’s almost no danger of anyone at any point asking you if you’re having a good time.” Here, as elsewhere, Hill hints at strong feelings, like the “gigantic hole” in his chest left by his mother’s death, but he quickly abandons them in favor of humor. His self-deprecating childhood memories tread familiar territory: he receives boxing gloves in hopes of emulating Clint Eastwood only to have the neighborhood kids pummel him with them; he plays a less-than-virtuoso version of “Stairway to Heaven” for a school talent show. The adult anecdotes are equally mundane: he adopts a puppy and has difficulty housetraining her; he locks himself out of his childhood home and has to stay at a Motel 6; he indulges his father’s desire to take a ride in a big rig.

Hill makes an amiable companion, and if his stories aren’t earth-shattering, his unforced humor is worth a few chuckles.

Pub Date: May 10, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-399-16675-4

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Blue Rider Press

Review Posted Online: March 13, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016

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.