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WORDS STILL COUNT WITH ME

Name: WORDS STILL COUNT WITH ME
Author: Herbert Mitgang
ISBN: 0-393-03880-7

A CHRONICLE OF LITERARY CONVERSATIONS

by Herbert Mitgang ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1995

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This collectionwith more than 30 years' worth of Mitgang's writingspleasantly commingles interviews with novelists, poets, and historians with personal reflections. Most originally published in different form in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Nation, and elsewhere (though some are new), Mitgang's pieces have in common a straightforward style and intelligently compressed details. These uniformly short and personable interviews (typically without any agenda) are more simply conversations. Nabokov and Beckett, for instance, refused to be quoted but talked so affably, the encounters resulted nonetheless in lively portraits. Some writers play off their surroundingsNelson Algren and Studs Terkel in a bar backroom, Christopher Isherwood in Hollywoodwhile others, such as Rebecca West, Saul Bellow, and Isaac Bashevis Singer, are pure conversationalists. Although little seems to change over time in either Mitgang's tastes or authors' concerns with art, his selection of subjects has both a broad range and eclectic affinities. His love of Italian literature encompasses Ignazio Silone, Eugenio Montale, Italo Calvino, and Primo Levi, and his taste for entertainment in literature runs through interviews with Georges Simenon, Anthony Burgess, Irwin Shaw, and Elmore Leonard. His liking for the thick novels of James Jones, Herman Wouk, and James A. Michener is matched by the histories and reportage of John Hersey, Barbara Tuchman, and Theodore H. White. The collection of 60-odd interviews is neatly rounded out with seven essays on literary landscapesFitzgerald's West Egg, Willa Cather's Santa Fe, the literary circles of Tokyo and Praguebut unfortunately Mitgang's introduction on writing and interviewing is too rambling and unoriginal. Diverting and stimulating, this intimate record of the literary community has the feel of both working a cocktail party and browsing a bookstore.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-393-03880-7

Page Count: 300

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1995

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.