An absorbing, evocative meditation on a road seldom traveled.
An American couple on a hike through the Himalayas endure more hardship and self-scrutiny than they bargained for in this travelogue.
Neuhaus, a successful psychotherapist, and his wife Olga decide to fulfill his boyhood dream of seeing Mount Everest not by climbing it but by joining a package tour to a nearby spot in the Nepalese foothills with a glorious view of the peak. The company assures them that they would follow well-worn trails with ten other tourists, two guides and plenty of Sherpas to assist them, but the 19-day trek to 18,000 feet and back is still no walk in the park for two people pushing 60. The culture shock alone almost kills them: the filth, eye-popping poverty and primitive sanitation of Nepal; the appalling cuisine in back-country Sherpa inns (“I couldn’t believe that food could be so bad,” Neuhaus marvels after a serving of pudding that seems made from wall paper paste); the baffling and “fairly depressing” rituals at a local Buddhist monastery. Then there are the physical perils of grueling marches, yaks that almost trample them on six-foot-wide mountain tracks and the debilitating effects of altitude sickness. “I cursed [the tour promoters] repeatedly for encouraging us to undertake this trek,” the author seethes as his exhaustion and shame at his flagging pace mount. Fortunately, his training as a psychologist enables Neuhaus to see past his frazzled emotions and glean more measured insights on the importance of accepting one’s limitations, adjusting to the inevitable, valuing the effort as well as the outcome and opening up to new things without prejudging them. Neuhaus’ plainspoken but vivid prose also conveys the compensating delights of the trip: the austere beauty of the landscape, the graciousness of the Nepalese and the blessings of a warm sleeping bag after a hard day’s walk.
An absorbing, evocative meditation on a road seldom traveled.Pub Date: July 18, 2008
ISBN: 978-0595617623
Page Count: 216
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2010
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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