Like Herrmann's S.J. Perelman (1986): a vigorous, intelligent portrait of a complex personality. Public events in the lives of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh—lives lived against the grain of Main Street adulation—still bristle in the memories of a pre-WW II generation: the famous 1927 flight; the kidnapping of the couple's baby and the subsequent trial; Charles's pro-German propagandizing (with Anne's published support) while Hitler was on the march. Herrmann probes the intense, obsessive marriage and, in particular, the shy, introspective Anne's sacred certainty that by offering absolute support to her husband, she would secure her own self. From a wealthy, frenetically active family, Anne was oddly attracted to ill-educated, ``boyish'' hero Charles, who liked practical jokes and the poems of Robert Service. (Herrmann quotes their daughter Reeve: ``In large part it was a physical relationship....'') During the honeymoon months, they flew together, the quirky early machines handled with Charles's technical brilliance, the flights beautifully chronicled by Anne. Herrmann details the terrible events of their first baby's kidnapping and the famous trial: ``essentially [the Lindberghs] would remain victims for the rest of their lives.'' The author speculates, also, that a victim's rage, horror, and helplessness can lead to a ``messianic sense of mission'' when a global event touches these deadly depths. The hero became a pariah when his involvement in the noninterventionist movement encompassed Nazi sympathies and anti-Semitism. Privately, Anne protested; publicly, she supported her husband. Anne herself would return to public favor in the 1950's with her Gift From the Sea, in which she urged ``islands'' of soul-restoration for women worn by daily cares. (Here, Herrmann offers a dead-center critique of Anne's style.) A convincing portrait of a gentle woman with the inner fiber of piano wire, absolutely committed to a life within a love. A sound work—fascinating and essential. (Sixteen-page b&w photo insert.)
Pub Date: Nov. 30, 1992
ISBN: 0-395-56114-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
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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