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THE WITHERING CHILD

A family drama and a literary guidebook uneasily cohabiting within the same covers—the former riveting, the latter frustratingly beside the point. In the fall of 1990, John and Jane Gould, an English teacher and Episcopal priest, respectively, move to Oxford for a year's sabbatical, bringing with them their two young sons. Sam, two, adjusts fine, but five-year-old Gardner, always an inflexible and rather difficult child, stops eating. At first his parents chalk it up to the strangeness of the new English environment (where the hot dogs taste like boiled suet) but, as the weeks pass, Gardner gets no better. He wakes up most nights vomiting and writhing with leg cramps, and grows so weak and listless that, finally, the head of the school he's attending can't cope with him. Adding to the distress, the Goulds are provoked into behavior they swore they would never engage in: There are some harrowing scenes of this idealistic English teacher and his priestly wife lapsing into verbal abuse of their suffering, intractable child for ruining the year both have looked forward to for so long and have invested so many scarce resources to bring about. As if to demonstrate that some good came out of this blighted journey, Gould includes accounts of visits he managed to make to literary landmarks—but these belong in another book. At last, after four months in England, when Gardner has dropped one third of his body weight, the Goulds face the inevitable and head home. Stateside, the boy quickly recovers and, through counseling, his parents begin to understand the limitations and quirks of his nature that made him almost fatally unable to adapt to the move. The Goulds also begin to forgive themselves, and to consider the loss of their dream a small price to pay for the restoration of their son's—and their entire family's—health. Except for the extraneous travelogue: an unusually powerful story of a family in crisis.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-8203-1560-5

Page Count: 244

Publisher: Univ. of Georgia

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1993

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NUTCRACKER

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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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

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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