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SHARKEY'S KID

Name: SHARKEY'S KID
Author: Leroy Ostransky
ISBN: 0-688-10325-1

A MEMOIR

by Leroy Ostransky ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 22, 1991

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Jewish nostalgia, Manhattan style. Ostransky (Music/Univ. of Puget Sound) recalls his childhood on New York's Lower East Side, where he lived under the heavy thumb of his illiterate father. During Prohibition, the elder Ostransky was known as Daddy at home, Sharkey at the illegal bar that he managed on Rutgers Street. Daddy had a passion for Victor Red Seal classical records, loved Caruso and gypsy violin, and wanted more than anything that his son grow up to match Heifetz and Menuhin as a Jewish virtuoso. To this end, he forced young Leroy to practice daily in the back room of his bar and take weekly lessons uptown from Maestro Cores. Unfortunately, what Daddy/Sharkey liked was ``Jewish music'' (which he heard in the most unlikely works simply because they might be written in a minor key) and beat the boy to make him sound more passionate. In fact, the musical apogee of Lower East Side Jews was the cantorial style, which requires ``vocal virtuosity equal to anything in Verdi or Puccini,'' and is so dramatic that ``even the unfaithful might suspect that the Lord of the universe pays attention and listens.'' That's what Sharkey wanted to hear when Leroy practiced—but it wasn't the clean, sharp playing that Maestro Cores wanted. Sharkey was a violent man, used to keeping law and order in his bar with his fists, and when at book's end he at last accompanies trembling Leroy to a lesson from the Maestro, who complains about the boy's gypsy style on the scales, Leroy expects his old man to punch out the teacher. Finally, at Prohibition's end, the bar collapsed, and old Sharkey became an assistant on a beer-delivery truck. Old home-feelings all on a dead level with no rising action- -but some elders will welcome this seedcake.

Pub Date: May 22, 1991

ISBN: 0-688-10325-1

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1991

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.