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Assignment: Tripoli

Name: Assignment: Tripoli
Author: L. L. Zimmerman
ISBN: 978-1420885613

by L. L. Zimmerman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 12, 2006

A warm, well-rendered historical appreciation of Libya’s rich culture.

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Zimmerman offers a warm, engaging memoir of her two years in Libya during the 1950s as a housewife in a foreign land.

The author’s story begins in late 1955 as she prepares to move herself and her three children to Wheelus Air Base in Tripoli to join her husband, a U.S. Air Force pilot. Over the course of her husband’s rotation, Zimmerman gave birth to a fourth child and adjusted to a number of other changes. While she dealt with a lack of easy access to telephones and transportation, she also witnessedpoverty on a scale unknown to most Americans, and faced the social and cultural obstacles that came with traditionalist attitudes toward women. To make her adjustment more difficult, several regional political developments while she was there led to protests and unrest in the streets. Meanwhile, the Cold War loomed in the background, particularly when the 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik became international news. Zimmerman writes this memoir with good humor and cheer, even while acknowledging her personal troubles large and small—from an abusive upstairs neighbor to locusts—and the darker aspects of Tripoli life, such as the destitution of children living on the streets. The memoir is leavened throughout with the author’s modern-day opinions on family and friends that appear in the narrative. Overall, Zimmerman brings her day-to-day routines to vivid life with her firm grasp of detail. Although readers can find many other memoirs about people living overseas, the author here provides the fairly novel perspective of a 1950s housewife in a country not well understood by most Americans.

A warm, well-rendered historical appreciation of Libya’s rich culture.

Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2006

ISBN: 978-1420885613

Page Count: 228

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Review Posted Online: June 11, 2013

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

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.