A glowing, tangy slice of life from a quirky Shangri-la.
An American woman finds her bliss south of the border in this beguiling memoir.
The semi-mythical distillation of the author’s impressions of her home of 40 years–the village of Paraiso in Mexico’s Sierra Madre–is almost as perfect as its name implies. There is gorgeous weather, a scent of orange blossoms and jasmine wafting on the breeze, a 16th-century church said to have been built by Cortes, and Popocatepetl, an active volcano whose eruptions add an occasional note of drama to the town’s tranquility. It has two very different but equally colorful kinds of people. The first are the salt-of-the-earth locals, who enjoy their simple pleasures and take everything in stride, not excluding the presence of a flamboyant transsexual hairdresser. (They’re not so friendly to a priggish new padre who causes an uproar by banning alcohol at the big church fiesta and is finally run out of town for having a secret wife.) The second are the wealthy expatriates who winter in Paraiso, bringing with them their shady pasts and decadent proclivities. These include the imperious Countess Simi, the pot-addled Madame Natalia and a floating community of spies–one of whom ruins a cocktail party by accusing another guest of a cryptic betrayal. The well-connected author also includes cameos from movie stars Helen Hayes–whose autobiography she co-wrote–and Gloria Swanson, a stridently rude vegetarian. Hatch is deliriously in love with her adopted homeland, warts and all; on a rattletrap train ride, besieged by vendors hawking everything from orchids to “miracle salts,” she buys one of each. In this collection of lighthanded sketches, her limpid prose exquisitely captures the sleepy rhythms and warm customs of village life along with the antic high life of the expat demimonde.
A glowing, tangy slice of life from a quirky Shangri-la.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-4392-4585-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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