A journalist's perfervid, impressionistic, and ultimately pointless take on an American armored unit that survived Desert Storm with a minimum of combat casualties. With all the finesse of an aging hipster trying to be cool, Sack (Fingerprint, 1983, etc.) offers surreal, helter-skelter perspectives on the experiences of a 64-man band of US Army tankers before, during, and after the Gulf War. C (as the author calls it) was deployed to Saudi Arabia early in 1991 and posted to the Iraqi border. Having smashed through a collapsing enemy front, the company fought in the Battle of Al Qarnain (one of the largest tank actions in military history) and moved on to further encounters in occupied Kuwait. Drawing on what appears to have been open access to his subjects, Sack occasionally comes up with a vivid, memorable vignette, e.g., the tank commander who machine-gunned enemy forces to the strains of Pink Floyd's ``Dogs of War'' and the sullen resistance of eager-to-engage crews to their ultracautious captain. But to keep his thin red story line lurching forward, the author relies mainly on textual gimmickry (``arrrr,'' ``kkkkk,'' ``tatatatata''), snatches of the banal lyrics from the rock music apparently favored by Generation X troopers, and anecdotes more notable for shock than depictive value. Nor does he retrieve the situation with a cast of stock characters (including a born-again sergeant as concerned with his men's immortal souls as with their lives) and low-rent epiphanies (``War, C had learned, wasn't glorious. War was dumb''). The after-action report: A dispensable entry in what will almost certainly become a crowded genre. Readers in search of a gritty grunt's-eye view of the Gulf War will be far better served by Carsten Stroud's estimable Iron Bravo (1995).
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-688-11281-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 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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