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THE MOJAVE

Name: THE MOJAVE
Author: David Darlington
ISBN: 0-8050-1631-7

A PORTRAIT OF THE DEFINITIVE AMERICAN DESERT

by David Darlington ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 23, 1996

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A grand tour of America's ``most visible, vulnerable, and emblematic'' desert place, the Mojave. With the same enthusiasm and devotion he brought to two previous books (In Condor Country, 1987, and his exploration of zinfandel, Angel's Visits, 1991), Darlington takes on the Mojave, home of the Joshua tree and Death Valley, and the setting for many a western film, a wilderness only a day's drive away for over 40 million Americans. As Darlington notes, deserts no longer project the evil image they once did of deadly, godforsaken lands, their vegetation twisted, their inhabitants even more so (Charles Manson was a desert dweller, as was Bugsy Siegel). Today, says Darlington, these sere spaces are considered not bizarre but awesome, not barren but austere, quite beautiful and full of life. And life Darlington finds, in spadefuls, as more and more people have been drawn to the Mojave: some good folks, some venal, most eccentric, and almost always entertaining. He searches for the southernmost Joshua with an iconoclastic museum curator; pokes about with geologists and historians as they seek to find out what went on there in the recent or distant past; spends time with a rancher in an effort to understand the impact of grazing on such a fragile environment; hangs out with low-rents and high-brows, UFO watchers, miners, ORV fanatics, all of them, for their own reasons, devoted citizens of the arid wilds. The author ponders why the desert is so dumped on, from common garbage to nuclear waste. He savors the desert's fauna, particularly in a superb rendering of the tortoise, and he is especially good at capturing the desert as a land of opposites: epiphanic and excruciating, sensual and despairing, wide open yet palpably mysterious: ``In its enormity, it constantly challenges you to comprehend it, to come to terms with infinity.'' The best kind of place study—it makes you want to go there.

Pub Date: April 23, 1996

ISBN: 0-8050-1631-7

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996

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.