Forced literary allusions aside, a stirring encounter with people overrun by time and change.
Russian-American Bengis (I Have Come Here to Be Alone, 1976, etc.) searches for spiritual roots in her parents’ native land, buffeted by tumultuous times after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Although the Cold War now seems like a receding chapter in somebody else’s history book, the casualties were real and not confined to the battlefields of Vietnam and Afghanistan. When the author went to live in Russia at the invitation of her friend “B,” she stepped into a state that, pressed to the wall by resolute capitalist antagonists, had diverted so many resources into “defense” that it became the first modern society to actually see the rate of infant mortality rise while life expectancy went down. Looking for “what socialism might have killed” in the country of her heritage, Bengis finds deep wounds and much suffering but an intact soul, true to the Russian proverb that “hope dies last.” It’s a soul personified in the turbulent B: reeling from the end of her marriage, plagued by money problems, and gripped with paranoid fear that some mobster will covet her apartment and send thugs to appropriate it, in spite of it all, she lives for art. Together B and Bengis encounter a cast of characters struggling to survive Yeltsin’s “catastroika.” (Among their late-night, kitchen-table insights is the notion that cheese from America tastes like a rubber ball.) The author’s eye for telling detail is sharp; her notions often fleeting, yet engaging—e.g., has the socialist doctrine that “everything belongs to the People” left behind it a nation of incorrigible petty thieves? The decision to have a malignancy removed in a Russian hospital puts Bengis in close contact with women facing similar surgeries; their shared, unconditional support and eventual joy at her recovery are inspirational, as the Russian spirit transcends both dreariness and angst.
Forced literary allusions aside, a stirring encounter with people overrun by time and change.Pub Date: May 14, 2003
ISBN: 0-86547-672-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: North Point/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
A superb book about doing his job by a master of his craft.
The renowned writer offers advice on information-gathering and nonfiction composition.
The book consists of eight instructive and charming essays about creating narratives, all of them originally composed for the New Yorker, where McPhee (Silk Parachute, 2010, etc.) has been a contributor since the mid-1960s. Reading them consecutively in one volume constitutes a master class in writing, as the author clearly demonstrates why he has taught so successfully part-time for decades at Princeton University. In one of the essays, McPhee focuses on the personalities and skills of editors and publishers for whom he has worked, and his descriptions of those men and women are insightful and delightful. The main personality throughout the collection, though, is McPhee himself. He is frequently self-deprecating, occasionally openly proud of his accomplishments, and never boring. In his magazine articles and the books resulting from them, McPhee rarely injects himself except superficially. Within these essays, he offers a departure by revealing quite a bit about his journalism, his teaching life, and daughters, two of whom write professionally. Throughout the collection, there emerge passages of sly, subtle humor, a quality often absent in McPhee’s lengthy magazine pieces. Since some subjects are so weighty—especially those dealing with geology—the writing can seem dry. There is no dry prose here, however. Almost every sentence sparkles, with wordplay evident throughout. Another bonus is the detailed explanation of how McPhee decided to tackle certain topics and then how he chose to structure the resulting pieces. Readers already familiar with the author’s masterpieces—e.g., Levels of the Game, Encounters with the Archdruid, Looking for a Ship, Uncommon Carriers, Oranges, and Coming into the Country—will feel especially fulfilled by McPhee’s discussions of the specifics from his many books.
A superb book about doing his job by a master of his craft.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-374-14274-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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
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