Nine autobiographical essays by novelist Wolff (The Final Club, 1990, etc.), whose own early-life adventures would make Tom Jones blanch. Those who have read Wolff's memoir of life with his father, The Duke of Deception (1979), will know this territory pretty well: the author's outlandish childhood (played out from week to week in cold-water flats, debutante balls, jazz clubs, and stolen cars); his con-man father; his Choate-and-Princeton years—all of which were given longer and better play in the earlier telling. Still, while some of the new essays are warmed-over Duke, most of them pick up where that story was left off. Wolff's first job out of Princeton—teaching English at an American prep school in Istanbul- -provides the basis for the best piece here (and, one hopes, for Wolff's next novel), and his reconstruction of how he abandoned academic life for a career in journalism and writing (``Apprentice'') is both wry and moving. The voltage drops significantly toward book's end, however, when Wolff tries (in ``Matterhorn'' and ``Waterway'') to tell us more than we need to know about his midlife crisis, and rambles on to no discernible or interesting end. Wolff's eye is unfailingly sharp and his descriptions remarkable and glib. When he keeps to his subject, he can be mesmerizing, but he tends to wander into uncharted waters, where he frequently gets lost.
Pub Date: March 16, 1992
ISBN: 0-679-40333-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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