The genesis for this latest collection of elegant essays from Gonzalez-Crussi (Pathology/Children's Memorial Hospital, Northwestern University; On the Nature of Things Erotic, 1988, etc.) was a BBC TV-series that started out to be a sort of day-in- the-life-of... but soon came to focus on death and dying. This isn't the book of the show, however, but Gonzalez-Crussi's later musings and reflections. The opening piece describes a prototypical funeral home in a working-class Chicago neighborhood, presided over by an octogenarian obviously pleased with his life's work. Gonzalez- Crussi quotes liberally from the embalmer's own writings on the death of John Dillinger, as well as on the fate of Eva Per¢n's body—subjected to elaborate preservation, veneration, and then attempts by anti-Per¢nistas to destroy it. The scene then switches to Mexico City, the author's birthplace, for essays dealing with the elaborate festivities surrounding the Day of the Dead. On this occasion, which takes place during the first week of November, pre- Columbian and Catholic customs blend in celebrations in which the departed are offered food and drink amid special offrendas—flower- bedecked altars with motifs of cheerful skulls and skeletons. This combination of irreverence, merriment, and fatalism, Gonzalez- Crussi suggests, characterizes the Mexican attitude toward death, a sharp contrast to the European legacy of lugubriousness and ``danse macabre.'' Meanwhile, in one of his most vivid pieces, the author recalls his solitary trip at age nine to a poor Mexican neighborhood: There, he viewed the body of a young child in a room in which the glorious abundance of flowers couldn't mask the stench of the decomposing body. Finally, Gonzalez-Crussi describes an autopsy, and discusses how death has been depicted in the arts. While Gonzalez-Crussi brings some levity to his subject here, the overall tone is serious—appropriately so—and should stir readers into their own memento mori.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-15-181192-X
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1993
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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