Lightweight but good fun, written with wit and affection.
How can an actor possibly make a living working out of Austin, Texas? Perella has managed very nicely, thank you, and the answer makes for hilarious reading.
Perella is the kind of actor who plays characters with names like “Cop # 2” and “Anglo Father.” That is to say, you’ve seen him a hundred times and didn’t even know it. Having chosen to stay at home in Austin, he may have foregone the possibilities of fame and fortune in New York and Los Angeles, but he actually makes a decent living in Texas working in major-budget films, indies, commercials, and industrials. Granted, he occasionally has to play a Greek Philosopher-King at the Dell Computers Christmas party, or a truck driver in a commercial for a motor-oil additive, but he seems to have a heck of a lot of fun. Still, it’s something of a stretch to call this jerry-rigged reminiscence a memoir; in her foreword, the author’s long-time friend Molly Ivins notes that Perella used to regale his friends with letters full of the very stories that went into this volume—which does tend to read like a series of amusing notes from an old drinking buddy. The author is a charmingly self-effacing guy, with a suitably glib line of professional-Texan patter, honed to perfection by many years toiling as an actor. Happily, there is very little phoniness in his character, and his account is notably devoid of nostalgia for the great “art” in which he is engaged. But he also has a hard-won pride of craft that results in a delightful, quick read with some sidesplitting anecdotes (about such career lowlights as the most disastrous performance ever of A Streetcar Named Desire, a turn with PBS’s literary dog Wishbone, and a bizarre week in New Orleans working at a convention of computer geeks).
Lightweight but good fun, written with wit and affection.Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-58234-155-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001
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
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