A Russian-American playwright, essayist, and novelist (Travels with Dubinsky and Clive, 1987) looks back on his small- town upbringing and big-city education in post-Stalin Russia. This is an unusual autobiography for a Soviet ÇmigrÇ: The author never did time in a labor camp or psychiatric hospital, and when he applied for an exit visa in 1974, the Soviets seemed glad to let him go with no strings attached. While a life story like Gurevich's seldom gets into print, it is in fact more typical of the 1970's wave of immigrants than widely known stories like Solzhenitsyn's. The son of a Jewish air force colonel, Gurevich was given a relatively privileged upbringing in the Russian heartland and became fluent enough in English to attend an elite Moscow institute for future diplomats. A mildly rebellious student involved in rock music and foreign movies, he was eventually informed that the Party didn't trust him to travel abroad. He then applied to emigrate to the West, where he has since become a successful writer. Here, Gurevich dwells on a number of themes familiar to the age of glasnost: the dreariness of life in the Soviet sticks, the stupor-inducing Communist school system, and the culture of poverty that differs from our own ghettos only in its lack of ubiquitous firearms. Some readers will identify with the author's youthful alienation, preoccupation with rock music, and urge to see the world, but Gurevich's powers of observation are impressive only when he's looking at himself; even at 20 years' distance, his perspective on less fortunate friends, relatives, and teachers is remarkably compassionless. This book is appearing about five years too late; while capably written, it's unlikely to inspire uncommitted Russophiles or to inform the committed of anything they haven't already read elsewhere.
Pub Date: May 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-15-149825-3
Page Count: -
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1991
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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