A sometimes eye-goggling history of political corruption in one corner of the postwar South. Squires (Read All About It, 1993), a longtime political reporter for the Nashville Tennessean, was born into a family that exercised a modest amount of power in that small city; his grandfather was a sheriff's deputy who carried a gun and a clenched fist, a man whose talk with cronies was full of references to ``sonofabitching judges'' and ``goddamn niggers.'' He was also, Squires relates, one of the muscle men behind a vicious cabal of power brokers headed by one Boss Crump, ``a leader of the machine's gestapo, quick to violence, not only capable but guilty of killing in the interest of racism, corruption, and political power.'' That machine involved, for a time, much of Nashville's leading citizenry. It engineered elections, stole votes, organized lynch mobs, ran an illegal gambling empire, and in the 1950s, when it appeared that the traditional Democratic Party was going soft on civil rights, brokered the advent of Republicanism in one corner of the South, allowing that party a foothold that would later bring it to regional prominence. The growth of that machine, however, also inspired a backlash among Tennessee progressives that brought civil-rights issues to the forefront of Nashville politics some years before they would become a national concern. When those progressive elements finally accumulated enough support to break Boss Crump and his cohorts by reorganizing city hall into a less centralized metropolitan government, they helped open the door to Kennedy's Camelot, to organized labor, and to a new way of doing things. ``As political systems go,'' the author proudly writes, ``Tennessee's is now as truly diverse and free of prejudice as any in the country.'' Told in an easy, anecdotal style, Squires's complex story affords a microcosmic view of the nation's political evolution in the last half century.
Pub Date: March 6, 1996
ISBN: 0-8129-2428-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Times/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1995
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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