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GAZA

Name: GAZA
Author: Gloria Emerson
ISBN: 0-87113-445-4

: A YEAR IN THE INTIFADA: A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE PALESTINIAN PROBLEM

by Gloria Emerson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 2, 1991

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A timely book by National Book Award-winner and former New York Times correspondent Emerson about a year she recently spent in the Gaza strip talking to a range of Palestinians, all affected to some degree by the intifada. In a preface, Emerson (Winners and Losers, 1978; Some American Men, 1985) notes that she is writing ``not in the hope of denigrating the Jewish state, only to illuminate, as so many other have done, why there is a revolution that will persist for years until the Palestinians have their nation.'' Accordingly, basing herself at the Marna House, a comfortable refuge for visiting foreigners, she talks to as many Palestinians as she can, an often dangerous business, for there are curfews, informers, and police surveillance to contend with. Emerson, surprised by the beauty of the area, also comes to understand the great love the Palestinians feel for the land itself, a love that impels so many of them to resist the Israelis and support the P.L.O. She talks to a doctor fired from a hospital merely because he was a member of the P.L.O.; a lawyer tortured and imprisoned four times in five years because of the legal aid he gave during the intifada; the parents of young children imprisoned because they three stones at Israeli soldiers; and ordinary men and women, fishermen and housewives, caught up in the uprising and summarily punished by Israeli authorities. She also meets the remarkable Yusra Barbari, who not only founded The Palestinian Women's Union, which helps working women and housewives, but fearlessly speaks out in military courts, in interviews, and at public meetings. An epilogue notes, without future speculation, the current Palestinian-Iraqi alliance. Emerson is too much the reporter to offer solutions or historical analyses, but her clear, humanistic accounting is sure to raise eyebrows and controversy.

Pub Date: May 2, 1991

ISBN: 0-87113-445-4

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1991

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.