Dogs are not only our best chance of finding unconditional love, suggests Garber (Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Erotocism of Everyday Life, 1995) in this wry, literate study of dogs in human culture. They are also the repository of all those model human properties that, in our cynicism, we have ceased to find in each other. ``Dog love is local love, passionate, often unmediated, virtually always reciprocated, fulfilling, manageable. Love for humans is harder.'' Dogs have, says Garber, become the vehicle for our deepest feelings of love and loss, and manifest those qualities—courage, responsibility, loyalty, a sense of values—by which we measure ourselves, but which we rarely exhibit. Garber elaborates on this notion by delving into all manner of dog stories: Dickensian, Wordsworthian, and picaresque modes of dog biography; dogs as military heroes; dogs as Odyssean adventurers (Lassie); dogs as hearthkeepers (Odysseus's Argus). She notes what Descartes, Bentham, Dr. Johnson, Xavier Hollander, Shakespeare, and Virginia Woolf, among others, had to say on the subject, arguing that ``dog stories are universal narratives.'' Garber smartly charts the contested ground that separates human from canine, touching on dog psychology, neo-anthropomorphism, dogs and the law, and the social hierarchy of the stud book. And Garber, whose previous books have focused on the crossing of gender boundaries, delights, often hilariously, in the bisexuality of that unconditional love: Guy or gal, dog or bitch, both love it both ways. No good dog story would be complete without a foray into the realms of bestiality (``he'll never look surprised at something you ask him to do, never make you ashamed, and will never, never talk,'' Garber quotes one enthusiast as saying). Then Garber closes with a stirring chapter on dog loss and the human and canine experience of grief. Quick-witted and entertaining. A dog's life never seemed such a fair prospect. (b&w photos, not seen) (Book-of-the-Month Club/Quality Paperback Book Club alternate selection)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-684-81871-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1996
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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