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REGENERATION

Name: REGENERATION
Author: Jennifer Karlin
ISBN: 1-58542-214-2

TELLING STORIES FROM OUR TWENTIES

edited by Jennifer Karlin & Amelia Borofsky ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 6, 2003

A “multilogue” of voices worthy of being listened to by anyone wondering what occupies the space between a 20-year-old’s...

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Writers in their 20s give varied expression to “the everyday process of living out youthful ideals in a world of questionable merit, and of learning how to reconcile what is with what can be.”

These prose works, poems, photographs, and artworks are valuable fragments of a collective consciousness, made into one simply by being the products of 20-somethings, a transformative decade of life whose fruitfulness is in full evidence here. First-time editors Karlin and Borofsky have gathered 46 contributions and grouped them under the loose categories of navigating, working, relating, and dreaming. This is well-trod and very youthful ground, and it isn’t surprising that hackneyed comments like “a desire to fill life with something beyond work and money” arise, nor is it hard to believe that the contributors here are indeed “people who do not look for labels.” But much of the material is a fresh look at learning how to compromise without sinking yourself, a mix of possibility, passion, and practicality. On sheer plentitude, for example, we read that “Freedom is not all it is pumped up to be: your mind can go haywire with alternatives,” and there is the matter of simply losing it, as in Lee Konstantinou’s anomic “The Schrödiger Treatment.” Jedediah Purdy marches firmly forward in the project of “achieving and sustaining a tradition,” while a poem about a father’s death appreciates the role of the past without being quite sure of its meaning. The ground is shifting under these authors’ feet even as they write—the nature of relationships is fluid when not unstable, and ideas like “quirkyalone” and “friend crush” are at once familiar and novel. Amid all this turbulence, it’s bracing to find the balm of humor as well, notably in Andy Isaacson’s “Take-Back-the-Siesta.com.”

A “multilogue” of voices worthy of being listened to by anyone wondering what occupies the space between a 20-year-old’s ears.

Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2003

ISBN: 1-58542-214-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: TarcherPerigee

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2002

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.