An autobiographical musing on mortality, suffering, and modern life from octogenarian van der Post, in which his often naive ponderings are relieved by vivid references to his beloved Kalahari and its Bushmen, still his true mÇtier. After a long life rich in adventure and friendship, van der Post is well qualified to reflect on the troubling big questions. His belief in the underlying unity between all living things and the importance of the subconscious has certainly been a major theme in his books on Africa (Testament to the Bushmen, 1985, etc.). Now, however, affected by the death of a son and two beloved friends from cancer, he attempts not only to link cancer, which he regards as a post-WW II disease, with all that is wrong with the present, but to find metaphysical meaning in its occurrence. Going beyond Susan Sontag's idea of cancer as metaphor, van der Post describes it as a condition for attaining grace and salvation. Those afflicted are paradoxically blessed, for they are able to transcend contemporary greed and self-absorption. Recalling first his childhood, special friends, and wartime experiences, van der Post finally comes to Blady, a mare whose story, he says, exemplifies his contentions. Rescued by friends from ploughing the fields, Blady does the impossible and wins a prestigious competition. This victory is van der Post's epiphany and his balm: Blady is not only a symbol of waiting for ``a readiness'' for whatever fate decrees, but, in her unlikely success, a reminder that ``in the short run [we] may have to go through darkness and death but will be joined inevitably with the last great story of all, and its happy ending.'' The message is heartfelt, but the antique flavor of van der Post's reasoning and his simplistic tenets about illness overwhelm all that is fresh and moving here.
Pub Date: May 21, 1992
ISBN: 0-688-11412-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1992
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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