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THE EDIFICE COMPLEX

Name: THE EDIFICE COMPLEX
Author: Deyan Sudjic
ISBN: 1-59420-068-8

HOW THE RICH AND POWERFUL SHAPE THE WORLD

by Deyan Sudjic ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2005

Intellectually robust look at the delicate relationship between profound design and filthy lucre.

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Acerbic examination of the relationships between despots, presidents and the super-rich, and the architects who vie for their commissions.

Observer architecture critic Sudjic (John Pawson Works, 2000, etc.) is fascinated by the baroque dance through which prominent architects and their masters enable each other’s dreams of immortality, whether embodied by Albert Speer’s promises to Hitler regarding Berlin’s “ruin value,” or Donald Trump’s application of vulgar business bluster to skyscraper marketing. He opens by recalling Saddam Hussein’s building mania, the latest attempt by a dictator to secure a permanence that rarely endures: “Architecture is used by political leaders to seduce, to impress, and to intimidate.” Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany provide a historical template in understanding the results of such Faustian bargains. Sudjic unfavorably compares Speer’s notorious postwar dissembling to the moral decisiveness shown by his Italian counterpart Giuseppe Pagano, who grew disillusioned with Mussolini and joined the partisans. A grim comedy emerged among architects serving Stalin: No one ever dared to second-guess him, so projects went ahead with drafting errors intact. Like Soviet Russia, Communist China also relied upon grotesquely outsized public works, which allowed the state to simultaneously dictate terms to renowned architects, and destroy inconvenient traces of prior regimes. In the United States, raw political power is translated into ego and wealth: Sudjic sees this epitomized in the shabby fund-raising and sterile monolithic designs of recent presidential libraries, noting “the more lackluster the president, the larger the library.” Today, “ambitious cities” pursue ill-conceived projects in hopes of scoring a civic success like Bilbao’s Guggenheim or the Sydney Opera House. Yet Sudjic asserts that the Frank Gehry era of instant iconic structures is coming to an end, as evidenced by the acclaimed Dia museum, located in a building that was once a box factory.

Intellectually robust look at the delicate relationship between profound design and filthy lucre.

Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2005

ISBN: 1-59420-068-8

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Penguin Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2005

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.