Essential for experts or, shall we say, believers. For casual readers, a curiosity.
A painstaking and often specious study of the astrological implications of Washington, DC, architecture.
Astrologer and Nostradamus expert Ovason mixes scholarship and stargazing in a bizarre paean to Masonic influence on the federal city. Most of the capital’s planners—Andrew Ellicott, George Washington, James McMillan—were Freemasons, and it is Ovason’s contention that their plans reflect a sweeping consideration of the constellations, particularly Virgo. Rambling from a detailed reading of the zodiacs that decorate numerous federal buildings to the ancient Egyptians who inspired those zodiacs and then to a discussion of the unfinished pyramid on the dollar bill, the author fascinates with his erudition but ultimately leaves one cold as he delves too deeply into hocus-pocus. We are told, for example, that the Freemason sculptor of a famous statue of Admiral Farragut was not only one of the last people to see Lincoln before his assassination, but that another one of her sculptures included a triangle (a Masonic symbol)—and that the very same sculptor’s house was later demolished for the construction of the Federal Triangle. A later chapter adds to the pile: the Federal Triangle also mirrors the constellation Virgo, which is fixed between the three stars (Arcturus, Spica, and Regulus) that mirror the White House, Washington Monument, and Capitol building. The upshot is that Virgo rules over the city and, by extension, the whole of the US. Virgo—a figure representing the Egyptian Isis, Greek Ceres, and Christian Virgin Mary—therefore blesses the country with her bounty and protection. Ovason seems to struggle with his material, not because he’s a stranger to it, but because of the sheer mass of information he’s compiled. He never knows quite when to stop, giving the reading an obsessed, claustrophobic tone.
Essential for experts or, shall we say, believers. For casual readers, a curiosity.Pub Date: July 4, 2000
ISBN: 0-06-019537-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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