From Rubenstein (Soviet Dissidents, 1980), an admirably objective account of one of the Soviet Union's most unusual icons- -Ilya Ehrenburg, a writer who not only survived the twists and turns of Kremlin politics, but also enjoyed the regard of dissidents like Nadezhda Mandelstam and Anna Akhmatova. In 1907, as a 15-year-old Moscow schoolboy responding to the prejudice he experienced as a Jew and the injustices he perceived in Russian society at large, Ehrenburg joined the Bolsheviks, along with classmate Nikolai Bukharin. Rubenstein suggests that it was the radical appeal of Bolshevism that attracted Ehrenburg, who was alienated by his father's moderate views. In and out of prison, he fled in 1908 to Paris, where he met Lenin, fathered his only child, and began to write. He returned to Russia in 1917, experienced the turmoil of the Revolution and then lived in Europe, where he wrote his first novel, Julia Jurenita, and was a correspondent for Izvestia. As Ehrenburg, who returned again to the USSR in 1940, steered a torturous passage between maintaining his integrity and surviving, he was mistrusted by both the authorities and those who considered him a Party apologist. He had no illusions about the regime, though he accepted its highest honors; a Jew, and therefore an outsider, he was also a great Russian patriot. For Rubenstein, Ehrenburg's behavior in the 1930s and late 1940s—when the writer, like so many others, was ``involved in a great conspiracy of silence''—is redeemed by his fight against Nazism and anti- Semitism, and by his efforts on behalf of dissidents. He was not ``confined by his contradictions . . . he was larger than all of them.'' The story of a particular man and time, but also a finely drawn portrait of a writer and his conscience under siege in a place where the ill-chosen word could lead to exile or death. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Feb. 14, 1996
ISBN: 0-465-08386-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1995
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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