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
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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