The author’s supreme confidence can sometimes segue into dismissiveness and arrogance, but this does not diminish the...
A motley collection of previously published essays on topics ranging from Anne Frank to Bill Blass, by a New Yorker staffer and biographer (Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, 1999, etc.).
Thurman—multilingual, articulate, globe-trotting, charmingly snide—can be a daunting companion for a stroll down the lanes of contemporary cultural history. There seem few books she has not read, few relevant celebrities she has not encountered (including Jackie O), few museums whose fashion collections she has not memorized, few significant sites in New York, Paris and Milan she has not adorned. Many of these pieces deal with appearances—with women’s fashions (she has one essay about men’s clothing), and with the men and women who design them (there are substantial portraits of Chanel, Schiaparelli, Balenciaga, Armani, Kawakubo, Versace and Scaasi). The earlier portions of the collection focus on literary matters. She reviews recent biographies of Edna St. Vincent Millay; has some harsh things to say about the “pedantry” of the definitive critical edition of Anne Frank’s diary; comments thoughtfully on Beloved, Charlotte Brontë, the photography of Julia Margaret Cameron and Irving Penn; expresses some reservations about Byatt’s Possession. Here, too, are pieces about bulimia, pearls (the world’s best pearls, she says, lie in the Persian Gulf), New York row houses and hair-straightening. She juxtaposes portraits of Madame de Pompadour (“one of those girls and women who are a pleasure to spoil”), Marie Antoinette, Teresa Heinz Kerry and Cleopatra. Her customary wit sparkles everywhere. The pouf, she says, was “a cross between a topiary and a Christmas tree.”
The author’s supreme confidence can sometimes segue into dismissiveness and arrogance, but this does not diminish the cumulative dazzle of her essays.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-374-12651-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
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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