Hennig, a freelance journalist, offers diverse cultural, historical, artistic, and literary perspectives on human hindquarters. He may not have any fundamental aesthetic thesis to propound in this loosely arranged series of vignette-essays, but his conversational touch lightly mocks academia's current obsession with such matters as body theory and the ``gaze.'' In his ongoing contemplation of the S-silhouette and the hourglass figure, Hennig examines, tongue-in-cheek, such aspects of the posterior as its evolution, its depiction in the art of Renoir, Degas, and Toulouse-Lautrec, the comparative movie careers of Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot, the three varieties of bottom-pinching as practiced in Italy (pizzicato, vivace, and sustenuto), and the medieval blazon, which is an apostrophic verse genre devoted to body parts. Hennig does not neglect the male buttocks, noting representations from the ancient Greeks through Michelangelo and up to GÇricault. One of the odder items that Hennig turns up concerns one theory about the Mona Lisa's ``twisted, slightly idiotic smile,'' which supposedly is a representation of a boy's posterior turned on its side. Throughout, these disquisitions are embellished with literary allusions and quotes from the likes of Baudelaire and Apollinaire, though Hennig sometimes over-relies on certain sources, such as Desmond Morris's The Naked Ape for anthropology and Sir Kenneth Clark's art criticism. The only drawback to this slim, entertaining volume is its Francocentrism: Noted buttocks fanciers Chaucer and Swinburne go unmentioned, although Hennig discusses French slang and advertising campaigns at some length. Although The Rear View often risks glib showiness, its celebration of the derriäre is generally witty, amusing, and literate. (16 pages b&w illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: April 2, 1997
ISBN: 0-517-70814-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1997
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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