"You understand, of course, that everything I say is horseshit" — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. — so damn disarming how can you not like the fella? He wants so much to please: "But it's a useful, comforting sort of horseshit, you see?" He has a good word for everyone — from the inventor of napalm to Madame Blavatsky, from a Cape Cod mass murderer to Louis-Ferdinand Celine. He even thinks a social evening with an old schoolmate and her husband Melvin Laird might not be unpleasant. The only person he seems to have any kind of real grudge against is Richard M. Nixon, and then, not because the President is "evil," but because "he dislikes us." Those made-up words in the title come from Cat's Cradle and define aspects of the sense of community among men that inspires Vonnegut to write this "horseshit." Vonnegut thinks these 25 short pieces (essays, speeches at colleges and so-called learned societes, reviews, one play, a fictitious Playboy interview) can be collected under the rubric of "New Journalism" which is to fiction, he suggests, as noise is to melody. He sounds off on science fiction writers, writing seminars, Maharishi, moon shots, Hesse, Biafra, torture, Vietnam, Hunter Thompson, and also blows his own horn now and again. Naturally. He is one of our most politicized writers. Vonnegut: "There may be some hope for mankind." So it goes.
Pub Date: May 14, 1974
ISBN: 0385333811
Page Count: 324
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1974
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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