A babbling stream of consciousness from a septuagenarian writer who is afraid he has Alzheimer's disease. Wetzel's father had Alzheimer's, as did an aunt and other members of his paternal line, and until his doctor assures him that at 74 he is out of danger, Wetzel is constantly on the lookout for it in himself, and on more than one occasion he's convinced that he has found it. Wetzel's seven-year-long obsession is presented to the reader as an outing, a longish drive with the author as he confronts the nature of aging and of dementia in a vague and roundabout way, with sidetracks into both early youth and the literary imagination. He travels back in time to ponder the unconsummated flirtation/love between himself and a younger cousin, thinks back on his own father's descent into dementia, and wonders about this legacy from a man who disowned him in every way but genetically. A large portion of the book describes time spent in a van in the company of an 83-year-old drunk who serves as a foil for the author's paranoia. Novelist Wetzel (A Bird in the Hand, 1973; The Lost Skiff, 1969; etc.) conveys very well, with his creative lack of punctuation and multi-parenthetical prose, the inner workings of his slightly unlatched mind, although this unlatching never really seems to the reader to sound like the early stages of Alzheimer's. It seems more like what, in fact, it turns out to be: the uninhibited, often scatological, and not obviously rewarding ramblings of an old man.
Pub Date: July 1, 1997
ISBN: 1-877946-94-X
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Permanent Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1997
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
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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