Seemingly effortless, entirely transportive.
Essays old and new from writer’s writer Conroy (Body and Soul, 1993, etc.), who eschews fireworks in favor of the dead-on observation as he considers topics ranging from fatherhood to the Rolling Stones to leaving New York.
The author kicks off this collection of pieces spanning 30 years with a few anecdotes that got left out of the original published versions (in periodicals ranging from the New York Times Magazine to GQ). There was the time he went to movie actor Steve McQueen's house to do an interview for Esquire and found the actor stark naked; and Conroy's profile of the Rolling Stones went a lot smoother after an accidental jam session with drummer Charlie Watts, even though Mick Jagger was a “narcissistic egomaniac” (another observation that never made it into print). The writer quickly moves away from these quirky celebrity moments to circle around to a more intimate topic: himself. We learn of young Conroy's relationship with his mostly absent father, conducted almost entirely through Frank’s absorption in Dad’s book collection. We read about the author’s obsession with scouting, which endured until a pivotal moment of disillusionment in Madison Square Garden. We continue through his personal life, learning of his failed first marriage, his departure from New York, and his meeting his second wife on the road to a garbage dump. The centerpiece here is an essay about the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (of which Conroy is director) that distills his philosophy and approach into 14 tight pages. Among the typically laconic comments: “Writing is a mixture of knowing what you're doing and not knowing what you're doing.” The collection’s final third focuses on Conroy's jazz writing; in his account of sitting in on keyboards as a teenager at Sugar Ray's in Harlem, the “pure glee of a kid jumping up and down on the theater seat” leaps off the page.
Seemingly effortless, entirely transportive.Pub Date: April 22, 2002
ISBN: 0-618-15468-X
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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