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WRITERS ON WRITING, VOL. II

Name: WRITERS ON WRITING, VOL. II
Author: Eds. of New York Times
ISBN: 0-8050-7361-2

MORE COLLECTED ESSAYS FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

by Eds. of New York Times ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

More self-consciously literary than its predecessor, but still some valuable gleanings.

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An uneven second collection of essays on writing from the New York Times.

The 45 pieces collected here are neither as solid as those from the first go-round (2001) nor as entertaining as the ones in Marie Arana’s similar Washington Post anthology, The Writing Life (see above). In such short essays, all it takes is one false step, and interest evaporates. Stumbles include the typically crack Herbert Gold using ridiculous dialogue (“Sorry, but I’m a very busy dermatologist. I only have time to keep up with well-validated books”), A.M. Homes making the baffling statement that to have witnessed in real time the destruction of the World Trade Center was “irreconcilable,” and Anna Quindlen’s overly generous self-appraisal of her work as journalist and novelist (“good writing is good writing no matter where you find it”). Ann Patchett in one swoop neatly undercuts the decidedly sniffy sense that these writers have been anointed by the paper of record (even if some of the names leave you scratching your head) when she casually remarks, “This essay, for example, which I asked to write . . . ” Let it be said that the volume also contains some dandies: Arthur Miller on writing about anti-Semitism in Focus (“I knew what I knew, what I had seen and heard”), or William Kennedy tracking like a hard-bitten gumshoe his contention that “fiction demands the necessary falsity, the essential lie that the imagination knows is truer than what your rational self thinks is true.” What work best are not the pretentious expoundings on “craft,” but the glimpses into writers and the circumstances that shape them, as when Amy Tan excavates her family genealogy, or David Mamet comments on his encounters with the piano, “how much can one remove, and still have the composition be intelligible?”

More self-consciously literary than its predecessor, but still some valuable gleanings.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-8050-7361-2

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.