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MAGNETIC CITY

Name: MAGNETIC CITY
Author: Justin Davidson
ISBN: 978-0-553-39470-2

A WALKING COMPANION TO NEW YORK

by Justin Davidson ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2017

A worthy companion to Alfred Kazin’s A Walker in the City and the American Institute of Architects guides to the...

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A street-level celebration of New York City in all “its perpetual complexity and contradiction.”

Gotham, writes New York architecture critic Davidson, is a liquid city, “a stunningly obvious fact that for decades was almost forgotten,” strung across islands, inlets, and peninsulas. It is also, indeed, magnetic, a city that for centuries has drawn people of all kinds from all around the world and “for all different reasons,” the best of them having to do with art, though many regarding brutal commerce. Thus it is that New York might also now be seen as a liquid assets city, a place where the dollar and only the dollar decides. Touring the boroughs through a series of vigorous water-hopping walks—and there is no city better for walking, an activity that means “having no idea who will cross your path, what they believe, or how they will behave”—Davidson ventures casual asides that could easily turn into whole treatises: how is it that the Hanover Bank, named after the grandest royal family of Europe, could have been housed in so plain an edifice? How did it come about that the traffic-dodging Manhattanite now walks in one of the safest cities in the world for pedestrians, such that “being a flâneur in New York remains as intellectually invigorating as ever; it’s just no longer an extreme sport”? The author also examines the Grand Concourse, with its 11 auto lanes and spindly treed median—not the great promenade its creators envisioned so much as a speedway and sometimes parking lot. Davidson consistently writes with bright enthusiasm (“Is there any human activity that architecture can’t elevate?”), and he thankfully avoids the clots of postmodern jargon that so often burden books of contemporary criticism.

A worthy companion to Alfred Kazin’s A Walker in the City and the American Institute of Architects guides to the architecture of New York as well as a treat for fans of the metropolis.

Pub Date: April 18, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-553-39470-2

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Spiegel & Grau

Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.