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LOOKING FOR A SHIP

Name: LOOKING FOR A SHIP
Author: John McPhee
ISBN: 0374523193

by John McPhee ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1990

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McPhee embarks on a cargo ship to South America, scouting the endangered life of the American Merchant Marine. The masterful essayist (most recently The Control of Nature, 1989, and Rising From the Plains, 1986) follows Andy Chase, second mate, onto the merchant ship Stella Lykes. Andy is among the oversupply of mostly aging sailors forced to spend too much time looking for a ship. From Charleston to Valparaiso, Cartagena, and Callao, these men sail, picking up and unloading cargo by the ton—here, including mattresses, methane, a fire engine, and starving horses. McPhee's sculptured prose sets us out on the water. The momentum of more than forty thousand tons, he writes, is as absolute as the darkness. Into the time-suspended pace of ship life—the meals, the watches—he intercuts geology, history, and navigation, letting 1835 Darwin evoke Chile today. At sea, tension abounds, not simply in the chance of storms (where walls of water can sever a ship), collisions, and pirates (who board the ship at Guayaquil), but in the ulcerated mst eating away the aging hull. Once No. 1 in the world in total ships, with over 2,000, the US Merchant Marine now has fewer than 400. Weighed down by taxes, insurance, and wages, American carriers can't compete with often-subsidized foreigners. (The Russians carry 50 times as much freight.) This loss we feel, watching the command of captain Paul McHenry Washburn, 65, who navigates by dead reckoning and docks a ship the length of Rockefeller Center as if he were closing a drawer. The romance of the Andes back-lighted from the water; the reality of stowaways, 150-degree engine-room heat, and a ship dead in the water—like the Merchant Marine itself: these McPhee captures. This classic sea story, previously published in The New Yorker, also asks why America responds in slow motion to global conditions.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1990

ISBN: 0374523193

Page Count: 252

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1990

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
TABULA RASA
by John McPhee

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PATCH
by John McPhee

- BOOK REVIEW
DRAFT NO. 4
by John McPhee

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

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

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.