bookshelf

WOODHOLME

Name: WOODHOLME
Author: DeWayne Wickham
ISBN: 0-374-29283-3

A BLACK MAN'S STORY OF GROWING UP ALONE

by DeWayne Wickham ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1995

bookshelf

PG-rated autobiography of a young man's coming-of-age in a black Baltimore ghetto. Journalist Wickham (USA Today, Gannett News Service) was orphaned in 1954 at the age of eight when his father shot his wife to death before turning the gun on himself. That grim scenario sounds like the perfect beginning for a story about a young man's descent into crime, pimping, and drug dealing, but Wickham sidestepped all those things. While he was certainly traumatized by the deaths of his parents, the story of his childhood and adolescence is squeaky-clean; it sometimes reads like a black American Graffiti. Wickham looks back with tender hindsight, little anger, and a great deal of self-knowledge, emerging from the shadow of his early misfortune as a fairly typical kid going through fairly typical teenage stuff: He agonizes endlessly about how to kiss his first girlfriend; he tries out for sports teams; he just says no to drugs and alcohol. A single trip to the police station for extorting quarters from fellow students convinces him crime is a losing proposition, and he soon becomes a caddie at Woodholme, a Jewish country club that for a time provides him with an emotional center, money, and a measure of self-esteem. Throughout, he is helped along by older black (and white) folks who try to steer him on the right path. Indeed, Woodholme constitutes a good argument for the effectiveness of the black community's ``extended family,'' in which neighbors and teachers assume the role of absent parents. The book ends with the 17-year-old Wickham joining the Air Force after fathering an illegitimate daughter. He vows to earn his GED and to support his child and his future wife, and you don't doubt that he will. Ultimately inspiring and refreshing precisely because of the absence of the guns/dope/sex sensationalism we've come to expect from such books.

Pub Date: May 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-374-29283-3

Page Count: 276

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
BILL CLINTON AND BLACK AMERICA
by DeWayne Wickham

- BOOK REVIEW
THINKING BLACK
edited by DeWayne Wickham

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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.