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PET PEEVES

OR, WHAT HAPPENED TO DOCTOR RAWFF?

This faintly amusing blend of Plimpton’s ironic words and Koren’s shaggy drawings purports to be a series of letters sent to a veterinarian who wrote a syndicated pet-advice column before his disappearance in 1998. One of Dr. Rawff’s interlocutors wants to know whether he can bring in his cousin, a hotel manager who barks and lifts his leg at hydrants. Another has a goldfish who jumps out of the bowl and walks around on its fins. Another, who carefully taught his parrot the words to Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan,” is annoyed that when he exhibits his prodigy to guests, the willful bird will recite only “Innisfree.” In the Afterword, the editor asks, “Could it be that [Dr. Rawff] has gone to rescue the woman who was towed to a strange exotic island by her pet dolphins? Perhaps he’s dropped in on the man whose chimpanzees have completed three unfinished works and are now at work on Schubert’s.” The individual entries, crafted with Plimpton’s trademark deadpan wit, are funny enough, but a little of this flat-affect humor goes a long way. For the pet-obsessed only.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000

ISBN: 0-87113-820-4

Page Count: 80

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2000

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NUTCRACKER

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

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

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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