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CIRCUMCISION

Name: CIRCUMCISION
Author: David L. Gollaher
ISBN: 0-465-04397-6

A HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S MOST CONTROVERSIAL SURGERY

by David L. Gollaher ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2000

Informative, highly readable, and completely painless. (b&w illus.)

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Circumcision has never been so enjoyable.

Gollaher (Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix, 1995) offers a fascinating and comprehensive history of the most common surgical procedure in the US. In a lively, surprising, and often graphic exploration of the practice, Gollaher touches on topics ranging from Egyptian genital cutting for hygienic purposes to the modern trend of "foreskin restoration." Gollaher discusses Jewish, Muslim, and tribal rituals as well as medical procedures, and his discussion goes far beyond diagrams and definitions; it also considers neonatal pain, surgical mishaps, posthumous circumcision, and various cutting gadgets. He covers every reason for the procedure, rational or not: cleanliness, covenant, aesthetics, disease prevention, repression of libido. "Historians typically strive to make the strange familiar," notes Gollaher. "But I hope also to make the familiar strange." Nor is he neutral in the circumcision debate. Opponents to circumcision cite the Hippocratic oath's injunction to do no harm. Gollaher argues, however, that facing thousands of years of cultural acceptance and a group of patients who could not object, American science seized the shears, using circumcision as a magical cure-all to treat paralysis, infection, and mental disorders. Citing medical, anthropological, and psychological studies, Gollaher casts a critical eye on a preventive surgery that he says "lacks a persuasive medical basis." He goes so far as to compare circumcision to female genital mutilation and predict that it will eventually go the way of bloodletting. Still, his study is well-balanced and intriguing as it attempts to look scientifically at an ingrained American practice and the history behind it. If you have ever wondered what became of the foreskin of Christ, whether Freud was circumcised, or how much dermal tissue bio-engineers can generate from a single foreskin (about six football fields worth), he knows the answers.

Informative, highly readable, and completely painless. (b&w illus.)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000

ISBN: 0-465-04397-6

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Basic Books

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000

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.