A different sort of Native American autobiography from novelist and Coeur d'Alene tribal member Hale (The Jailing of Cecelia Capture, 1985). Offering no ``visions of spirits, drums and feathers,'' these overlapping essays instead focus with pathos, though not much insight, on ``family dysfunction.'' Hale's Canadian-born mother, of mixed Indian and white descent, grew up English-speaking in white society but left an abusive and racist white first husband (losing custody of two children) for Hale's father and life on the Coeur d'Alene reservation. The author, ten years younger than the closest of her three older sisters, never witnessed the domestic violence that marred the early days of the marriage, but she was aware of her beloved father's occasional drunken binges and her mother's fury as she repeatedly packed Janet up and fled, taking menial work in a variety of towns in the Northwest. Hale says that she became the family scapegoat to her mother and sisters, enduring all-but- inexplicable rejection and constant verbal abuse. She recounts some Northwest history from a Native American perspective, and jumps through her own passage from single parenthood to Berkeley to lecture tours and a university appointment as a distinguished visiting writer. Family ties are important, she realizes, but those who come from destructive families must break away. Rather than family heritage, the author clings to the most admired quality among the old Coeur d'Alene: ``Courage has been bred into you. It's in your blood.'' Hale never quite brings herself or her world to life here, but, given her past, readers will be relieved at her survival and success.
Pub Date: June 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-679-41527-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1993
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
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
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