Here's a guidebook for the new generation of affluent stogie enthusiasts. A vile habit to many, a delight to a happy few, cigars are increasingly alight. Misogynist or, lately, simply antisocial, smokers placidly ignore the fulmination of the cigar police for the inexplicable pleasure of wreathing themselves and any innocent bystanders in a stinky haze. Writer Jeffers (Gentleman Gerald, 1995, etc.) and artist Gordon offer acolyte puffers a cigar manual a notch or two above the usual. Along with a history of the habit and a description of the cultivation and manufacture of the thing, the authors provide a guide to all the arcana and etiquette, personages and purveyors, terminology, doggerel, and epigrams of cigar smoking. (One apt epigram they omit: ``Tobacco is the opiate of the gentleman, the religion of the rich,'' said Cabrera Infante in his matchless Holy Smoke). Particular homage is paid to the great promoter Zino Davidoff—which seems altogether appropriate; parts of the text are reminiscent of Davidoff's The Connoisseur's Book of the Cigar. It's all easy and good-natured. There are no complaints about the insane inflation of cigar prices spurred by the new Baby Boomer demand. No stand is taken against the barbaric habit of leaving the band on a cigar as it is smoked. (But even Davidoff, alas, equivocated on this important point.) The authors may be forgiven for stretching a simile here and there. ``The first time you smoke a cigar,'' they say, ``it is like the first time you have sex.'' They neglect to point out that one of those firsts is more likely to induce nausea than the other. For cigar zealots, old and new, here's another accoutrement to place beside the humidor and the clipper. (illustrations and cigar ratings, not seen)
Pub Date: Oct. 10, 1996
ISBN: 1-55821-516-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Lyons Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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