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LAST OF THE DONKEY PILGRIMS

Name: LAST OF THE DONKEY PILGRIMS
Author: Kevin O’Hara
ISBN: 0-765-30983-1

ONE MAN’S JOURNEY TO DISCOVER HIS ROOTS

by Kevin O’Hara ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2004

It took newcomer O'Hara 25 years to compose this poke at Ireland’s edge, time for the events to become burnished. His...

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Skillful piece of travel-writing from O’Hara, who walks around the coast rather than ride in the cart, “because I want to view old Ireland from donkey level” (or maybe he just can’t command the cart?).

It is 1979. O'Hara is a young man semi-fresh from Vietnam, an American in Ireland with an idea: take a donkey and a cart around Eire’s circumference. This notion comes to him in a pub, and some in attendance suggest “he’d be much like those wise men who climbed Faerymount one clear night in June, all in hopes of catching the rising moon in a burlap bag.” His aunt Cella is less poetic: “I think you're a half-boiled eejit!” But not really, for all and sundry think his adventure is pretty fine—and it is. Short of funds, O’Hara figures he’ll be a seanachie, who gets the 3 Bs (bed, bath, and beer) by telling stories. Actually, since newspapers across the country are following his progress, it’s celebrity that gets him a welcome most nights, though one woman tells him through the farmhouse door, “I don't care if you’re John the Baptist proclaiming ‘the Good News,’ you simple gomeral! Now, get, or ye’ll be gimping off, I promise.” It is a slow and marvelous journey under dove-gray skies and beside forlorn Norman towers, through the “hollow bright fog” of sun and mist, reeling from the collywobbles of a bad bottle of stout, along a pilgrim’s path of holy wells and beehive cells. Everywhere there are intimate local vignettes and good wishes: “Now, safe home, and may a gallery of saints protect you” are the chosen parting words of a morning.

It took newcomer O'Hara 25 years to compose this poke at Ireland’s edge, time for the events to become burnished. His writing is all the better for it; like the Irish fog, it's both glowing and lightly pushed by an unacknowledged melancholy.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2004

ISBN: 0-765-30983-1

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Forge

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2003

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.