bookshelf

LONDON ORBITAL

Name: LONDON ORBITAL
Author: Iain Sinclair
ISBN: 1-86207-547-6

A WALK AROUND THE M25

by Iain Sinclair ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2002

Sinclair's eccentric style works best when taken in small doses—and with the supplement of a map. (8 pages color...

bookshelf

Walking tour of the neighborhoods and communities that border London's M25 highway: amusing and evocative, but bewildering to those not familiar with the territory.

Also known as the London Orbital, this approximately 120-mile beltway encircles the greater metropolitan area. Hackney resident Sinclair (Downriver, 1993, etc.) sets out on a series of one-day hikes to explore the M25’s perimeters and “celebrate the sprawl of London.” In the company of various friends, he pokes into the histories of villages and developments, factories and estates, writers, artists, and murderers. But don't expect a neatly laid-out chronicle; he skips back and forth in both present and past time so arbitrarily that the head spins. The “walk proper” begins at Waltham Abbey near the grave of King Harold (a pre–Norman Conquest ruler) and continues shadowing the motorway in circular segments back to the abbey. Along the way, Sinclair encounters and eloquently digresses upon author J.G. Ballard, the films produced at Shepperton Studios, and the rather startling number of insane asylums that ringed London. Many of these have been replaced by suburban housing developments, but Sinclair recaptures the earlier atmosphere: “. . . much was cruel, much fantastic.” Winston Churchill and Revolutionary War General James Wolfe are memorialized via facing sculptures in Kent; 19th-century artist Samuel Palmer and rock star Mick Jagger are commemorated along the Darent River as it parallels the M25. “Cool woodland passage” is besieged by the noise of traffic but also beset by robbery and murder. In Surrey, the fictionalized but clearly identifiable site of the extraterrestrial invasion in War of the Worlds, “the Martians of the New Millennium have landed” at the Bluewater shopping mall.

Sinclair's eccentric style works best when taken in small doses—and with the supplement of a map. (8 pages color illustrations, not seen)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2002

ISBN: 1-86207-547-6

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Granta

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2002

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GOLD MACHINE
by Iain Sinclair

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LAST LONDON
by Iain Sinclair

- BOOK REVIEW
AMERICAN SMOKE
by Iain Sinclair

- PROFILES
Iain Sinclair

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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.