Maine's curmudgeonly chronicler Gould (Dispatches from Maine19421992, 1994,) pays tribute to 30 summer sojourns in the North Woods. When Gould's son married Bill Dornbusch's daughter, a friendship was born that would carry the two men through three decades of ``Grandfathers' Retreats'' to the trout pools and logging roads of Maine's northern wilderness. Leaving mountain- climbing and canoe-portaging to eager Patagonia-clad tourists, the pair packs a truck with everything necessary for their trip, never forgetting the Maraschino cherries for Bill's evening Manhattans. Together they have shared dinner in the cookshacks of logging camps, wrestled salmon that strike a fly ``like the Cannonball Express,'' photographed moose who graciously posed for them, and quietly appreciated the approach of a doe with her fawn and the jackhammer activity of a pileated woodpecker hunting grubs. Checking their progress against Thoreau's earlier explorations as related in The Maine Woods, Gould approves some of his predecessor's meditations, corrects others, and points out the pleasures Thoreau seems to have ignored. Challenged by friends for apparently ``doing nothing'' in the woods, the grandfathers founded the Caucomogomac Dam Institute of Fine and Coarse Art, and in the tradition of the Duke and Earl of Huckleberry Finn, annually present ``philosophic opportunities'' for ``fractured history'' to inhabitants of the region. Gould scoffs gently at those who protest logging and then ``hustl[e] home to read a newspaper'' and curiously criticizes lotteries for moose-hunting licenses while extolling the virtues of sport fishing. Tongue permanently (at times frustratingly) in cheek, he brings his beloved woods and its colorful denizens to life, and though his opinions will ruffle the feathers of some environmentalists, his reverence for the wilderness is plain. Gould's affectionate essays will make armchair anglers of readers who never knew they wished they were from Maine.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-393-03806-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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