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SEVEN CATS AND THE ART OF LIVING

Name: SEVEN CATS AND THE ART OF LIVING
Author: Jo Coudert
ISBN: 0-446-51961-8

by Jo Coudert ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 10, 1996

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As she profiles the cats in her life, Coudert (Go Well: The Story of a House, 1974, etc.) gleans a raft of life lessons. No idle cat fancier, Coudert had amassed seven of them. She couldn't help but think that such neat and graceful animals, creatures without gods to truckle before, living in their own universes, were onto something. ``Something of worth about the art of living was to be learned from cats,'' she reckoned, something about ``living fully, handling restraints equably, thriving on relationships.'' Something, doubtless, about always landing on one's feet. So, at her home along the banks of the Raritan River in the hills of western New Jersey, Coudert took a long, hard look at each of her cats. There is Bitty, ``undeceivably alive by being in the world instead of walking through it,'' who taught her a thing or two about the benefits of unconditional love. The tormented and withdrawn Poppy allows Coudert to digress upon one of her favorite topics—the difficulties of one person changing another's self- defeating behavior. Socksie, with as tough a start in life as Poppy, chooses not to give up on the future and remains open to the friendship of a persistent person. And Sweet William, of gentle disposition and thunderously beautiful, has a self-awareness that brings Coudert's mind to the benefits of meditation, where the internal loops of rationalizations and justifications are broken, the defenseless self exposed for a moment. There is nothing particularly new here, or with the other three cats, but to put such musings in a feline context gives them a benign freshness. If at times Coudert's ministerings have a quaintly vapid air about them, at the very least they feel genuine: little homilies, tendered with best wishes. (24 b&w drawings by the author)

Pub Date: Oct. 10, 1996

ISBN: 0-446-51961-8

Page Count: 208

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1996

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.