The rambling story of how Paul (Catapult, 1991), 39, courted a 26-year-old gamine. Paul is a gifted stylist, lilting and sensitive, and here he has the makings of a possibly fascinating story—a romance in which reality beggars fiction. He opens in Paris, where he has taken his love, identified only as ``L.,'' to do...what? Apparently, to make her love him as much as he loves her. The two are already ``going together'' back home and have slept together, but we don't learn that Paul has marriage in mind until we're so far into his hazy tale that we can no longer summon up the sympathy to care about his quest. Using his and L.'s month-long trip to Paris and beyond as his springboard, Paul side-dives into chapter-long descriptions of other, historical passions: Petrarch's worship of Laura; Stendhal's lifelong quest for love (beautifully handled); and the ecstasies of the Song of Songs- -whose history is represented in confusing, oft-repeated snippets. These digressions are interwoven with descriptions of the couple's typically touristlike pursuits: attending the opera, eating and drinking, shopping for clothes, swimming in the Mediterranean, etc. But it doesn't help that Paul makes it difficult to bring himself and L. into sharp focus: He describes himself variously as an artist, writer, camp counselor, and teacher, while L.'s job in life seems to be self-maintenance as a modern-day and mysterious Laura. A raggedly sewn patchwork from a skilled writer who, for the moment, seems to be running out of things to say. (Line drawings.)
Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-679-42503-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1993
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
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
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