Terrifically banal, despite the unusual setting.
Myopic memoir about a few months on a ship.
Kendall, a broke grad student, was thrilled when she landed a high-paying summer job teaching English to Chinese men sailing to Texas to work for an oil company. She describes her lovable students, recounts their amusing though predictable gaffes (there was some confusion about the words “penis” and “peanuts”) and explains how she fended off boredom with exercise and the occasional Garrison Keillor tape. Onboard, Kendall had much time to reassess her life. She was contemplating leaving Houston and enrolling in a different graduate program, in Iowa. She was also reassessing her relationship with Martin, the stateside boyfriend she spoke with once a week via satellite phone. Kendall looked forward to these five-minute conversations, but wondered: Did she want Martin to come with her to Iowa? Why didn’t she fantasize about weddings and marriage, as most of her friends seemed to? Why did she instead sometimes daydream about women? Near the end of her trip, when Martin announced his decision to accompany her to the Hawkeye state, Kendall felt a despair she couldn’t explain. Though the author drops hints about past flings with women, and dissatisfaction with her love life is a theme from the start, the story simply ends with Martin picking up Kendall at port. The technical shortcomings here are as evident as the thematic ones. Images, metaphors and analogies are trite (a bad premonition feels like “a brick had been thrown into my stomach”), and the prose is lackluster. Ultimately, the author fails to situate her summer adventures within the larger framework of China’s opening up its economy and the mixed benefits of globalization.
Terrifically banal, despite the unusual setting.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2006
ISBN: 0-299-21944-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Terrace Books/Univ. of Wisconsin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2006
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
