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THE LONG WAY BACK

Name: THE LONG WAY BACK
Author: Lois Joy Hofmann
ISBN: 978-0-9995263-0-9

IN SEARCH OF ADVENTURE AND MOMENTS OF BLISS

by Lois Joy Hofmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 2017

A beautifully produced travelogue, but one that’s far too long and detailed to have very broad appeal.

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The third and final installment of a nautical memoir of a couple’s circumnavigation of the globe.

Hofmann (Sailing the South Pacific, 2012, etc.) and her husband, Gunter, decided to sail around the world in a state-of-the-art, custom-built catamaran, starting in 2000. Their last series of voyages commenced in Australia and circled back to France, where their journey began. Along the way, the couple made memorable stops in Thailand, Singapore, China, and Yemen, among other places; the entire eight-year trip landed them in 62 countries. Many of the troubles they encountered were minor, though understandably exasperating. The author notes that the lack of air-conditioning was oppressive, for example, and she and her husband contended with woeful bureaucratic corruption in Indonesia and Egypt. The couple found themselves at a discomfiting emotional impasse when Gunter suddenly announced that he wanted to abandon the original navigational plan in order to spend as much as another year in Thailand. He was depleted from travel, Hofmann writes, and worried about the wisdom of sailing through Pirate’s Alley, an infamously dangerous stretch of water between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. This is also the most romantic volume of the trilogy, however; the Hofmanns celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary in Australia, which she affectingly describes in these pages. Like its predecessors, this is a heavy tome, adorned with spectacular color photographs, and the author furnishes a surfeit of intriguing asides about the lands they visit. Also like its prequels, the journey is too minutely recorded for general consumption; it will serve best as a memoir for the author’s friends and family. And although Hofmann’s prose is reliably clear and passionate, it can devolve into theatricality at times: “I feel like I’m living inside a CIA thriller.” Still, this is an incisive and granular travelogue for those who want to emulate the author’s journey, and her accounts of cultural mores are fascinating, as in her astute comparison of Thai and Malaysian history.

A beautifully produced travelogue, but one that’s far too long and detailed to have very broad appeal.

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-9995263-0-9

Page Count: 456

Publisher: PIP Productions

Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2018

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.