This will be a sad last sentimental trek for those who remember Kerouac as their generation's oracular road guide. Written in his last years when he'd broken with the friends and scenes that fed his earlier novels, this rather painfully suggests the price he paid to drop back in or perhaps the imaginative exhaustion that led him to that choice, It's the story, for want of a better word, of a ten-year-old black North Carolina farm boy named Pictorial Review Jackson — a fair sample of the cute spot effects Kerouac was going in for at this point — told from Pic's own point of view in an insistent if not quite recognizable dialect. When his good old Grandpa gets sick he's taken to live with Aunt Gastonia where blind Grandpa Jelky tries to slap a curse on him; then his brother Slim, awfully innocuous for a hipster horn-player, comes and with all the good will in the world kidnaps him to New York. There he lives for a time in a bourgeoisified version of a penniless, jobless Harlem household. It's a tough life, sure, but nothing to get offensive about — just momentarily happy or sad as they take off again, to California, skating over a road that's almost worn through to the yellow brick. For old times' sake.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1971
ISBN: 2710303477
Page Count: 153
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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