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DO YOU MIND IF I CANCEL?

Name: DO YOU MIND IF I CANCEL?
Author: Gary Janetti
ISBN: 978-1-250-22582-5

(THINGS THAT STILL ANNOY ME)

by Gary Janetti ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 22, 2019

An essayist finds his voice within a hit-or-miss collection.

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A TV veteran’s memories of coming-of-age—and coming out of the closet—as an aspiring writer and actor in New York.

This debut collection of essays shows how long it took Janetti to find his footing on a career path that included Will & Grace (as executive producer) and Family Guy (as a writer). “I hadn’t…decided if I was going to be a writer or an actor,” he writes, “since both seemed equally impossible it was almost like choosing between being an astrophysicist and a Navy SEAL.” The author knew he was gay from early childhood and was teased about it through adolescence, but he didn’t fully come to terms with himself until he was 18, when he “was finally born.” The thematic undercurrent throughout the book is how much different things once were—before cellphones and websites and Google and GPS—when it took so much longer to find anything out. The particulars vary in interest. Janetti’s stories about trying to convince his mother to let him stay home from school by feigning illness aren’t much different from anyone else’s. Nor is his pre-adolescent appreciation of Cher particularly noteworthy: “Today kids have thousands of role models,” he writes. “And a Google search will instantly connect you to a wide variety of organizations catering to the entire LGBTQ community. Then we only had Cher….She was our pride parade, our GLAAD, our OUT magazine, our Trevor Project, all rolled into one.” There are some allusions to the author’s husband and his successful career but little indication of how Janetti got from the “here” of his formative years to the “there” of his belated writing career. In “Letter to My Younger Self,” he assures his younger self that everything will turn out all right. “I have had a good run, I can’t deny that,” he writes, though perhaps he’s saving a lot of his material for a future book.

An essayist finds his voice within a hit-or-miss collection.

Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-250-22582-5

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
WE ARE EXPERIENCING A SLIGHT DELAY
by Gary Janetti

- BOOK REVIEW
START WITHOUT ME
by Gary Janetti

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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.