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AN UNEXPECTED LIGHT

Name: AN UNEXPECTED LIGHT
Author: Jason Elliot
ISBN: 0-312-27459-9

TRAVELS IN AFGHANISTAN

by Jason Elliot ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2001

A vivid account of a journey through a distant, beautiful land.

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British journalist Elliot chronicles his love affair with Afghanistan in this evocative, albeit somewhat long-winded, narrative.

The author first visited Afghanistan briefly when he was 19 and the country was in the midst of its long war with the Soviet Union. Here he writes of his extended visit some ten years later, when the country was torn by civil war. When he arrived in Kabul, it was under daily rocket attack by the Taliban but had not yet fallen. Traveling within the city was fraught with danger; traveling outside it was arduous, hazardous, and in some instances impossible. On foot, on horseback, jammed into overloaded jeeps and dilapidated open trucks, Elliot ventures out to the north through high mountain passes, attempts a trip to the center of the country, partly by taxi and bus, and goes by airplane to Taliban-occupied Herat. As he travels, seeking out shrines and little-known historic sites, he muses at length about the country’s past and its customs. Everywhere he is treated with unfailing hospitality and courtesy by the Afghans, who guide him, shelter him, and feed him under the most difficult of conditions. The author’s impressive knowledge of Afghanistan’s history, his seemingly boundless affection for its people, his understanding and respect for their culture and religion, and his flair for the language make this more than a casual travelogue. It is a plaintive love song whose discordant notes are provided by daily encounters with violence, hardship, and poverty. Readers may well be put off by a certain smugness that marks Elliot’s accounts of his sometimes less than felicitous encounters with other Europeans or Americans, but there is no mistaking the genuineness of his admiration for Afghans and their country.

A vivid account of a journey through a distant, beautiful land.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-312-27459-9

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Picador

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

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

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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

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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

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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.