An often engaging change-of-heart story about an avaricious stockbroker’s divinely inspired transformation.
Hermesmann, in his debut, offers a short parable about a wealthy man who has a heavenly encounter on the road.
A powerful, successful Vancouver businessman named Harry seems to have the world at his feet: He’s a stock promoter and trader who’s made a good profit from his recent investments in bull markets. Because he’s “obsessed with making money,” he’s in his element wheeling and dealing, and he feels more comfortable at his office than in his loveless 15-year marriage to his wife, Beatrice. As this short novella opens, Harry is leaving his office for a quick car ride to the city of Whistler, in order to attend an exclusive party thrown by a posh brokerage firm. On the way there, he encounters a careless biker whose erratic weaving accidentally causes Harry to blow out a tire on his BMW. He’s furious, but when he confronts the biker, he hears the last thing he expects: The man is his guardian angel, sent “by special permission from God” to question Harry’s inability to clearly see what’s important in life. In the fast-paced, intriguing conversation that follows, the angel—formerly a Roman soldier named Longinus, who was among those who tormented Jesus—gently and persistently walks Harry through his life and shows him the value of truth. At first, the angel meets stiff resistance (“the only truth I know is the value of money,” Harry tells him), but during his own lifetime, Longinus was just as arrogant as Harry is now; he knows the right psychological tactics to awaken the spiritual dimension in the businessman’s heart. Hermesmann fills this story with lively dialogue throughout. There are occasional moments that some readers may find inconsistent; for instance, Longinus, at one point, condemns the fanaticism of the Inquisition by saying, “How can you argue with one who pretends to speak in the name of God?” For all that Harry knows, though, that’s exactly what the angel himself is doing. Overall, however, the whole thing moves along at a clip that believing Christians will find very entertaining.
An often engaging change-of-heart story about an avaricious stockbroker’s divinely inspired transformation.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-1460254066
Page Count: 104
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 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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