In the newspaper world they call it “reporting from the mahogany ridge,” where so many fine stories, social truths, and bits...
“America’s great middlebrow social elixir, and inseparable companion to the sporting and spectator life, the portal to first intoxication, the workingman’s Valium, and a leavening staple to the college experience” finds a worthy explicator of its whys and wherefores.
Wells (Logan’s Storm, 2002, etc.) likes a glass of beer, and though he’s not undiscerning, he’s no snob either. “I grew up with people who knew only three categories of bad beer: warm beer, flat beer, and, worst, no beer at all.” Wells’s mission here is not to anoint the best beer (“the appreciation of one doesn’t require me to vilify the others”), but rather to gather a sense of how beer fits into the American everyday, “to gain a view of America through the prism of the beer glass.” And while he’s at it, he might as well suss out the finest watering holes along the length of the Mississippi River. Wells doesn’t trust the homogenization of longitude, but prefers the variety of latitude. He can’t explain how the Big Three (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors) got so big, except that an ice-cold lager on a hot day can’t be beat . . . and their bosomy advertising garners admirers. But Wells will also be sampling Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA and Blackened Voodoo as he explores the history of beer and the cultural geography of the towns that hug the great river and its tributaries. Then, with a reporter’s nose, he seeks stories: one bar features a mullet toss, another sponsors a 5-K race with a beer stop at the half point. Wells gets literary—Shakespeare figures in, as do Chaucer, Joyce, and Thoreau (“The tavern will compare favorably with the church”)—but he is happiest bellying-up with his nose to the wind.
In the newspaper world they call it “reporting from the mahogany ridge,” where so many fine stories, social truths, and bits of political wisdom are revealed.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2004
ISBN: 0-7432-3278-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2004
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
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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