Novelist Coyne (Child of Shadows, Fury, etc.), once a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia, edits a sheaf of lively essays close to his heart. Thirteen former Peace Corps writers, all professionals with published books to their credit, are asked to return to their country of service or another country in which they lived, and write about what is true and lasting, what has changed, and what a traveler really needs to know about the place. Among the countries the writers dig into are Kenya, Peru, Somalia, Japan, Senegal, Mexico, Cameroon, Grenada, Hungary, Tanzania, and Micronesia. Mike Tidwell burrows excitingly into the heart of the Petroecuadorean darkness in search of Randy Borman, a 36-year-old Caucasian born in the jungle to missionary parents, who went native, became chief of a remote tribe of Cofan Indians, and was fighting the oilmen killing the rain forest—in outline, a very Conradesque character. In ``Beauty and the Beach,'' Bob Shacochis, a volunteer to St. Vincent and St. Kitts in the Caribbean, describes what's happened to the islands as moneymen have tried to organize the beaches of paradise. Jeff Taylor's ``School of Exiles'' tells of teaching English in Hungary while nearby Yugoslavia deteriorates and blood flows along the border. In ``Piquing the Spirits,'' Mary-Ann Tiron Smith goes into the Federal Republic of Cameroon and from the rain forest climbs Mount Cameroon with a movie-location scout—looking for a site for a remake of Tarzan—who contracts Dengue fever and has to be stretched out. Immensely diverse, often clever, unfailingly gripping as volunteers reach through barriers of tradition and culture to touch other lives, while a series of epiphanies blows their minds clear as a moonscape.
Pub Date: March 9, 1994
ISBN: 0-684-19629-8
Page Count: 305
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1994
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
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
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