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FROM LENIN TO LENNON

Name: FROM LENIN TO LENNON
Author: David Gurevich
ISBN: 0-15-149825-3

A MEMOIR OF RUSSIA IN THE SIXTIES

by David Gurevich ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1991

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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

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.