Given the title, as well as the neo-Castanedan spiritual odyssey that the author has undertaken in the past (Shakkai, 1992; The Woman of Wyrrd, 1990; etc.), Andrews's newest journey is ironically physical, even clinical, seeming to contradict her own thesis that a spiritual awakening compensates for the physical losses occasioned by menopause. In spite of her ritual dancing and eating, Andrews, we learn, suffers severe menopausal symptoms: sweating, crying, swelling, and physiological changes that she describes in amazing detail (bone loss; ``thinning of the vagina'')—with these details supplemented as she tells more than most readers need or will want to know about a gynecological examination by the ubiquitous heartless brute who so often shows up as a physician in feminist literature. Figures from previous books—the indefatigable Agnes Whistling Elk and Ruby Plenty Chiefs—appear, along with gourds, costumes, talking sticks, ``personal smudge bowls,'' a finicky diet, and personable wolves and uncanny bears who materialize for ritual dances. But instead of Andrews's usual dream flights to alien cultures or visits to other times, here she flies by scheduled airline, gets caught in traffic jams, mourns the death of her mother, and, while swimming with her boyfriend in Nevada, deals with the embarrassment of her wayward estrogen patch floating to the surface. She discusses menopause and women's life cycles with her apprentices, and confesses to having been raised in a dysfunctional family and abused as a child, and to being afflicted with denial. Boring, humorless, and unimaginative. Anyone interested in menopause should turn instead to Gail Sheehy's The Silent Passage or Germaine Greer's The Change. (Illustrations)
Pub Date: Sept. 3, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-016956-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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