by Lori Cidylo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2001
More adventurous than cow-tipping.
A beguiling memoir by an American who arrived in the Soviet Union two weeks before Gorbachev was ousted from office.
The daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, Cidylo grew up in New York but was fluent in Russian. In 1991, working as a reporter for a small New York state newspaper, she decided that there had to be more to journalism than front page stories centered around the cow-tipping escapades of local teenagers. So she set off for Russia with a backpack and a vague plan to operate as a freelance journalist. Luckily, she landed a job with the Soviet press agency, TASS, which provided her with a one-year work permit and a catbird seat from which to observe Russia’s “most dramatic transformation since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.” Cidylo remained for six years through attempted coups and a crumbling economy, living as a Russian amid economic and political chaos that she encapsulates in evocative vignettes of ordinary life. Like other Russians, she scrambled on the black market for “luxuries”: a washing machine, for example, required an anxious foray to the seller’s warehouse in the middle of a thick forest on the outskirts of Moscow. She learned to outfox the system, hiring the driver of a municipal bus to move her belongings from one apartment to another rather than face the frustration of dealing with the official Moscow moving service. Cidylo serves up amusing slices of Soviet life in her accounts of hanging a shower curtain, befriending a seamstress who would reupholster her couch, hoping for a date who had taken a bath recently (the title chapter). But there is also more emotionally charged material discussing the sad death of her friend Andrei, a doctor who fought for the well-being of Russian women, and the attempted coup against Yeltsin that brought tanks back into the Moscow streets.
More adventurous than cow-tipping.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-89733-501-5
Page Count: 252
Publisher: Academy Chicago
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2001
Share your opinion of this book
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
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
Share your opinion of this book
More by E.T.A. Hoffmann
BOOK REVIEW
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson
BOOK REVIEW
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis
by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
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
Share your opinion of this book
More by Ludwig Bemelmans
BOOK REVIEW
developed by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
BOOK REVIEW
by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.