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ALONG THE INCA ROAD

Name: ALONG THE INCA ROAD
Author: Karin Muller
ISBN: 0-7922-7685-X

A WOMAN’S JOURNEY INTO AN ANCIENT EMPIRE

by Karin Muller ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2000

A journey worth sharing: travel at its spare, energetic best. (photos, not seen)

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An observant seven-month trek down the High Road of the Inca Empire from solo adventurer Muller (Hitchhiking Vietnam, not reviewed).

Running for 3,000 miles down the spine of the Andes, with enough feeder roads to fashion 15,000 miles of byways, is a network collectively known as the Inca Road. It was the kind of transportation filigree that functioned as a nervous system for the pre-Columbian empire (and also served to facilitate its demise, as the Spanish conquerors enjoyed its benefits as well). The author picks up the road at its northern terminus in Ecuador and follows it down to Chile. She is on the lookout for experiences and, finding them, plays them only for what they are worth, while avoiding any temptation to overdraw and remaining wary of her untutored eye. Fortunately this doesn’t keep her from wading right in. She visits a shaman who specializes in healing the sick by beating them with guinea pigs. (Somewhat in the manner of Woody Allen, he observes that “there are other ways of curing. Tobacco, alcohol.”) She is skeptical, but curious and eager—a good traveler, in other words, who is open to snake oil salesmen and willing to learn how to form a proper wad of coca leaves in her cheek. Throughout, she provides history and eye-opening context (“more than half of the basic foods that feed the world today were born in the southern reaches of the New World”). She also knows how to court danger casually enough to send a few chills up her spine, and her pity and sorrow feel genuine: at the toll taken by landmines strewn about during the region’s many undeclared wars, for example, as well as at the lives of gold miners who are afraid to leave their underground stakes (one man having spent essentially eight years in the deep dank dark).

A journey worth sharing: travel at its spare, energetic best. (photos, not seen)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000

ISBN: 0-7922-7685-X

Page Count: 304

Publisher: National Geographic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2000

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.