First published in Germany in 1951, these memoirs and meditations on love, religion, and art by Russian-born writer and psychoanalyst Andreas-SalomÇ (1861-1937) offer a curious perspective on the lives, works, and times of Nietzsche, Paul RÇe, Rilke, Rodin, Freud, Tolstoy, Wagner, and the other friends, lovers, and European intellectual elite with whom she spent most of her life. Starting with a meditation on God and the loss of wholeness that comes with maturity, these ``uncontrollable memories,'' range over Andreas-SalomÇ's travels in Italy, Germany, France, Russia, her life in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, the human encounters and varieties of love that overcame her sense of isolation, and her studies with Freud, and conclude with a description of her 45-year unconsummated marriage to Carl Andreas, professor Persian, illustrating, she says, that ``what is truly essential remains unsaid.'' Reticent by nature, oblique in style, combining both the mystical and the analytic, Andreas-SalomÇ nonetheless conveys the elusive charm, warmth, spirit that inspired in others so much love and poetry''flight,'' as one admirer calls itand perhaps misery as well, certainly for those lovers that included Nietzsche and Rilke, who raised suffering as well as life to an art. She wrote books about both of them, as well as Freud, whom she admired for the way his rational approach led to the discovery of the irrational. In spite of an elaborate scholarly apparatus (two afterwords, extensive notes, a bibliography, and an appendix of poems), there is so little biographical information about Andreas-SalomÇ that it's hard to follow her lifealthough minor characters are identified in detail. Even so, these memoirs have the considerable fascination of the overheard conversation of strangers. (Sixteen pages of photographsnot seen.)
Pub Date: May 24, 1991
ISBN: 1-55778-260-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1991
A superb book about doing his job by a master of his craft.
The renowned writer offers advice on information-gathering and nonfiction composition.
The book consists of eight instructive and charming essays about creating narratives, all of them originally composed for the New Yorker, where McPhee (Silk Parachute, 2010, etc.) has been a contributor since the mid-1960s. Reading them consecutively in one volume constitutes a master class in writing, as the author clearly demonstrates why he has taught so successfully part-time for decades at Princeton University. In one of the essays, McPhee focuses on the personalities and skills of editors and publishers for whom he has worked, and his descriptions of those men and women are insightful and delightful. The main personality throughout the collection, though, is McPhee himself. He is frequently self-deprecating, occasionally openly proud of his accomplishments, and never boring. In his magazine articles and the books resulting from them, McPhee rarely injects himself except superficially. Within these essays, he offers a departure by revealing quite a bit about his journalism, his teaching life, and daughters, two of whom write professionally. Throughout the collection, there emerge passages of sly, subtle humor, a quality often absent in McPhee’s lengthy magazine pieces. Since some subjects are so weighty—especially those dealing with geology—the writing can seem dry. There is no dry prose here, however. Almost every sentence sparkles, with wordplay evident throughout. Another bonus is the detailed explanation of how McPhee decided to tackle certain topics and then how he chose to structure the resulting pieces. Readers already familiar with the author’s masterpieces—e.g., Levels of the Game, Encounters with the Archdruid, Looking for a Ship, Uncommon Carriers, Oranges, and Coming into the Country—will feel especially fulfilled by McPhee’s discussions of the specifics from his many books.
A superb book about doing his job by a master of his craft.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-374-14274-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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
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