Disorganized and capricious though it is, novelist Newlove's (Curranne Trueheart, 1985, etc.) little book is an ardent breeze blowing open the many different pages bound into the great book of prose-stylistics, focusing on arresting first paragraphs (to Newlove, these are the ones with immediate and in-drawing voice and clean, un-Latinate presence). With the garrulity of table-talk and the simpatico alertness of a jazz-club patron (``Wow.'' Or: ``Sylvia, go on! I'm all ears,'' responding to The Bell Jar), Newlove hops from the classic to the unknown. Bleak House gets about equal treatment as Mailer's or Brodkey's brand-newest; there are startling rewrites (by ``Dr. Don'') of Updike and Fitzgerald; lightning flashes replace critical sedulousness, hitting as often as they miss (good comments on Henry Miller, Virginia Woolf, Burroughs, Bellow, Stead, Giono, Hemingway). Lit-crit, then, this really isn't—too much brio and haste (and a little too puppyish now and then; after untangling a Brodkey paragraph and finding it ultimately soggy, Newlove repairs unconvincingly: ``Genius does what it must and waits for you to grow up to its interests''). What it is, is a part of that small and valuable tradition of eccentric authorial responsa (the best of which probably still is Ford Madox Ford's The March of Literature) that ride the waves of inconsistency and vagrant taste to deliver a look into the personally needy way a writer reads. Poll working novelists and you'll likely find agreement—from the technicians of the form itself—with many of Newlove's tastes and reasons—and appreciation of the pure keen savor that words falling onto the page just right can bring on in one of their smiths.
Pub Date: Feb. 12, 1992
ISBN: 0-312-06900-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1991
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
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
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