Warm, witty recollections well-aware of their absurdity.
Absurdity and drama go hand in hand in Baysden’s witty, loopy memoir of his time as a Navy adviser during the Vietnam War.
This slim volume tells of the shenanigans Baysden and several of his colleagues got up to while he was serving as a U.S. Navy lieutenant. Over the course of a year starting in 1968, Baysden was a senior adviser to the Vietnamese in the Mekong Delta, based in and around Rach Gia (usually mispronounced as “rock jaw,” ergo the book’s title). For various reasons, Baysden’s posting was given a fair amount of resources and very little “adult supervision,” as Baysden puts it. On top of that, the advisers, including the author, were only on duty for five days out of every 10, allowing the misbehavior to reach impressive levels. Long-running poker games, frequent trips to every brothel (aka “ladies clubs”) within traveling distance, gambling on which traps would catch giant rats and in which order: these are only some of the events Baysden describes with good humor and plentiful wit. That’s not to say the horrors of war didn’t occasionally intrude, but those horrors—which Baysden describes with respect and sensitivity, even in cases of wild coincidence or absurdity—were not commonplace in his experience, a fact for which Baysden is profoundly and profusely grateful. Literature about the Vietnam conflict is replete with grim, powerful stories of hardship and loss, so Baysden’s memoir is immediately striking for the light, joyful attitude in its pages, without ignoring the realities on the ground. If there is a downside to the stories here, it’s that they are rather disjointed, presented seemingly in the order the author remembered them, with characters mentioned before they’re introduced and given context. Baysden is well-aware of this, however, outrightly stating it as an issue within the first few pages, so readers are at least forewarned. Still, fans of often hilarious literature that explores the ridiculous nature of war—including Catch-22, which Baysden explicitly references—will feel right at home.
Warm, witty recollections well-aware of their absurdity.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4834-3418-6
Page Count: 142
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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