An intrepid Englishman journeys across the geographic, cultural, and sartorial landscape of Turkey in this wryly trenchant narrative that delivers far more than its title portends. Having previously taught English in Ankara and being fluent in Turkish, Seal, now a travel writer, undertakes a diligent search for any remaining traces of the conical, tassled fez that was outlawed by AtatÅrk, founder of modern Turkey, in 1925. So thoroughly banished was this headgear in pursuit of a modern, secular society (hangings were not uncommon in the enforcement of the ban), that Seal is only able to locate some fezzes in the dusty backrooms of a handful of hatmakers, in an Istanbul museum (where Seal, customarily the only visitor to any museum in his odyssey, is spied on by a man with a walkie-talkie), and on the head of a hopeful tourist agent. Crossing the Anatolian heartland in the footsteps of AtatÅrk, Seal finds a nation of unfinished and decaying buildings, treacherous roads, rickety conveyances, and ideological battles between the Western-looking secularists and the Eastern-looking Islamic fundamentalists. While in Kurdistan (some of whose population are still unaware that the fez was banned), Seal talks with villagers caught between the threats of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish guerrillas, both sides, it appears, equally barbaric. Yet there is much humor to be found: Seal's description of the common man is fraught with an economically worded, dryly colonial sensibility; Turks are forever trying out their English on Seal with hilarious effects; and the bureaucracy is unfailingly, comically inept. The fez, in its various historical and stylistic permutations, is never absent from the book; finally, the reader understands it as the physical embodiment of a nation forever seeking an identity. An adventure firmly predicated on the almost extirpated fez, yet far more than the story of a hat, Seal's book is an unerring pleasure to read.
Pub Date: March 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-600393-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harvest/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1996
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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