Uneven mix of travelogue and polar history, as Fisher (Environmental Sciences/Univ. of Miami; Hostage One, 1989, etc.) sails on the first surface vessel to reach the North Pole. A breathless tale of grit and guts? Not quite: Fisher shells out $30,000 for a three-week luxury cruise to the top of the world aboard the nuclear-powered Soviet icebreaker Sovetskiy Soyuz. The trip is uneventful, and Fisher's log consists mostly of arch observations on the landscape (ice, snow, slush); the ship (boiling hot: since unlimited nuclear-generated heat is available, Soviet mentality says, ``Crank it up!''); and fellow passengers (after observing that ``the menu is impressive, the food is awful,'' Fisher remarks that one woman ``looks like the menu and talks like the food''). When the jaded travelers arrive at the Pole, the scene reminds Fisher of ``New Year's Eve, with the crowds...ready to shout and drink a toast at the exact instant when we hit.'' But the Pole breaks through his weariness: ``I...could almost feel myself slipping down the curve of the earth.'' Happily, Fisher expands this forgettable travelogue with extensive retellings of earlier northern ventures, beginning with the doomed Willoughby expedition of 1553 and continuing up to Wally Herbert's dog-sled assault of the 1980's. Here, Fisher offers solid, exciting polar history, hitting all the right highlights: Franklin disappearing into the northern mists; Nansen's three-year drift across the ice; Andree's mad balloon flight. Like most other polar tale-tellers, Fisher pays special attention to the Cook-Peary controversy. He concurs that both men faked or fudged the evidence. The laurels for first overland discovery of the Pole should rest, Fisher believes, squarely on the head of Wally Herbert. A flimsy frame for some bright polar portraits. (Photos—color and b&w—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-679-41116-X
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1992
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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