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SEASONING

Name: SEASONING
Author: David Young
ISBN: 0-8142-0803-7

A POET'S YEAR WITH SEASONAL RECIPES

by David Young ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1999

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A soulful and sage calendar of monthly associations—“things of place seen in time”—from poet Young. Northern Ohio is Young’s patch, and he has assumed the poet’s ancient obligation to mediate between its citizenry and the sacredness of their landscape, to feed a spiritual hunger, taste the land in its bounty—wheat to wine’serve it forth in words and the occasional well-turned recipe. Young appreciates that any place can ripen in the fullness of time, when it has been allowed to season like firewood, even his own undramatic turf, a homely “nowhere in particular” from which he wrings delight, right down to its nickname of Firelands, after the Connecticut settlers whose farms back east were burnt out from under them by the British army. There are harmonies to be discovered in the land, particularly when fused with time (recollection, immersion, anticipation), a concatenation of stimuli amounting to a sense of place. Young approaches each month with deliberation, searching for aptness: the heavy settling of February; June’s emphatic turn to summer, “into long twilights and the deep night”; October’s “prolonged, occult pauses, temporal backwaters and time warps, indolent warm days when leaves lie around on the ground.” Poems stud the book, pungent summoning obliquities, so too stunning reflections on the loss of his wife and his mother, cathartic in their skillful economy. The chapters end with a saturnalia of recipes so that Young may celebrate the comedy of winter squash, give a great inclusive hug to all the elements that fill his days. Rarely does Young lose his touch (for instance, with a preachy comment like “being is a momentous gift, greater than any web site”), and even then it feels like an honest mistake. An elegant pot-au-feu of days, sensual and heart-gladdening.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-8142-0803-7

Page Count: 348

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1998

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.