St. Aubin de Ter†n (Nocturne, 1993, etc.) jumps on the Year in Provence bandwagon with this tale of her family's purchase and renovation of a decrepit villa in Italy's Umbria region. The structure of the narrative follows the house's reconstruction and different events in the small village of San Orsola, a place where, unsurprisingly, the neighbors are all friendly caricatures. The laborers working on the house are soulful and slow; the locals all make wine; St. Aubin de Ter†n's daughter and the two Irish au pairs assigned to care for her young son carouse in various discotheques with the expected gang of Italian teenagers. Occasionally there is a spark of originality in the material, usually when a more daring revelation is made, such as, ``Most Italian men publicly touch their genitals at regular intervals, as though to check that they are still there.'' Generally, however, St. Aubin de Ter†n follows the party line. The prose has some lapses into preciousness—her teenage daughter is referred to as ``the child Iseult'' throughout—but mostly it coasts along on the very familiarity of the material. St. Aubin de Ter†n frustrates most with her too-fleeting glimpses of her past. She refers briefly to a period of work on a Venezuelan sugar plantation, as well as to a disastrous first marriage, but for a book that purportedly centers on a family and their home, there is very little in the way of personal information. For example, she reveals that she, her husband, her daughter, and her son all bear different surnames, and later, when she becomes pregnant, points out that it is her husband's first child, without further explanation. While there is nothing offensively bad here, this tepid volume offers little that will not be familiar to readers of Tim Parks's Italian Neighbors (1992).
Pub Date: June 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-016886-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1994
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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