Gould (There Goes Maine!, 1990; etc.) collects over 70 witty essays from his weekly columns for the Christian Science Monitor. From the first sentence of his first essay, he puts the taciturn, unflappable soul of Maine in clear focus: ``There is reason to believe that, if the sun came up with a derby hat on some morning, most of my neighbors would not look twice, and would hardly mention it to their wives when they came up from the barns to breakfast.'' Gould retains this bemused, affectionate tone throughout the book, collecting and indulging the quirks and habits of Maine residents. His grandfather, for instance, always planted his flower garden among the vegetables. Why? ``He spent most the summer among his garden sass, and that was where he had to have his flowers if he were to enjoy them.'' Gould is also attuned to the rhythms of place, the larger ways in which people interact with their landscape, the symphony of drips in the sap buckets as March winds flail the tops of maples and ``the chatter of chickadees pecking at the suet you've brought along to nail up over the sugarhouse door. It's a great thing.'' There's a gentle comedy to the way Gould evokes moments of almost noble foolishness, like the time when the bottom dropped out of a pot and overbaked beans swam gamely on the floor in their own juice, leaving his wife ``holding the handle...helpless and forlorn.'' Better'n a steaming bowl of creamed codfish in January. Eyuh.
Pub Date: May 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-393-03624-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1994
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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