Gives the impression of being scrawled during lunch hour for publication in a free local listings guide.
Perhaps intent on proving that her title is in no way hyperbolic, Arizona Republic humor columnist Notaro details the mundanities of life in such a way as to make herself and her friends appear as klutzy, inept, and alcoholic as possible.
A single woman in her 20s, Notaro floats through life in an unremarkable American anywhere (you barely know it’s Arizona), inhabiting a landscape she never bothers to describe except to mention its many bars. The subject of nearly every extremely short essay is some kind of excruciating embarrassment experienced by either Notaro or her friends. We witness the author being shamed by her ratty underwear on a doctor's visit, mistaken for a homeless person when she reports for jury duty, and required to explain President Clinton's sexual transgressions to her 82-year-old grandmother. She introduces Joel, who announces he's happy to be dumb because less is expected of him; “Fun and Frolic Jamie,” so dubbed after consuming a 12-pack and ending up “drunk, topless, and unconscious”; and Jeff, characterized only by his mania for a limited-offer Taco Bell entree. Notaro also describes her long-suffering mother and her beloved Nana; their portraits are the only ones drawn with any nuance, and their repeated appearances in these hasty sketches allow a minimal amount of character development. With undistinguished prose, leaden humor, insistent self-deprecation, almost zero detail about anything other than the state of her immediate surroundings (and precious little of that), and the author succeeds in making herself and her circle appear purely unappealing.
Gives the impression of being scrawled during lunch hour for publication in a free local listings guide.Pub Date: July 9, 2002
ISBN: 0-375-76091-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2002
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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