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DARK OF THE MOON

Name: DARK OF THE MOON
Author: Maria Trautman
ISBN: 978-1-4415-6787-1

by Maria Trautman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 4, 2009

A searing memoir of family ties that bind all too cruelly.

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An impoverished girl in Portugal endures a hellish childhood in this moving autobiography.

Talk about being born under a cloud–the author was conceived when her mother Angelina, a housemaid in a tiny Portuguese village, was raped by an employer. Her prospects ruined, Angelina abandons Maria to her parents’ care. On her rare visits, she can barely bring herself to acknowledge her daughter’s existence. Maria’s first eight years with her doting grandparents seem idyllic, but when her grandmother dies she goes to live with Angelina and her new family. There Angelina’s resentment at the daughter who embodies her trauma and shame flares into outright hatred. Maria is ignored or treated like a slave, beaten for the slightest mistake, poked and scalded and fed rotten leftovers while Angelina and her common-law husband and their children feast on fresh food. Her terror and loneliness are heartbreaking, but she never loses her spirit. Through all the abuse she vows to get an education and find a way out of her miserable straits. The drama subsides a bit after Maria, seizing every break she can get, emigrates to Canada. She drifts through jobs and relationships and finally settles into a contented marriage, but her longing to discover her father and come to terms with her mother persists. Trautman’s lightly fictionalized account of her youth is vivid and gripping. Her enchanting portrait of life in her grandparents’ village sets up a shocking contrast with the grim and gritty confines of her mother’s Lisbon apartment. Angelina is a memorable character–at times she’s almost a fairy-tale ogress, but readers feel the sense of humiliation and dispossession that fuels her rage at her flesh and blood. The author’s luminous prose tells this story with immediacy and pathos.

A searing memoir of family ties that bind all too cruelly.

Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4415-6787-1

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2010

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.