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VERTIGO PARK

Name: VERTIGO PARK
Author: Mark O'Donnell
ISBN: 0-679-40040-0

AND OTHER TALL TALES

by Mark O'Donnell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 19, 1993

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Humorist O'Donnell (The New Yorker, Spy, etc.) presents a dizzy little satire and a miscellany of literate fun in diverse modes. Without shame or remorse, the author has his way with the English language, committing several assaults and a battery or two on a defenseless Mother Tongue. For example, ``Vertigo Park,'' an aborted real-estate development (so named in a mistaken stab at suggesting lush greenery) was ``the gateway to tomorrow, since the future is only the present left to run wild.'' One of the players in this long title story appears in a dubious flick called Will Wanda Never Cease?. There's playboy Culvert Booney and ``prestigious Leeward College, whose motto was Stand and Mingle.'' Add a scourge known as Fatal Urogenital Carnal Kinesis, which ``claimed its victims without any right to such claims.'' Maybe this is O'Donnell's attempt at The Great American Novelette, with its youthful romances, malefactors of some wealth, politics at the highest level, and pervasive all-American silliness. Maybe not. Wisely, he also presents a clever drama—sort of a Joycean play, playing on words—and a Bunyanesque tall tale about Johnny Business, who could sell feathers to a fish, retail, and his secretary, Babe the Blue Blood. There's the story of Bitty Borax, girl detective, who could postulate speedily—a modern Jonah tale wherein ``the crew and most of the passengers were superstitious under their clean clothes,'' and, as they say, more. The gathering is not large but it's inventive. Sometimes it invokes the spirit of Benchley, sometimes Perelman; then it's Bob and Rayish or Woody Allenish. Finally, it's the work of a comic chameleon, whose parodies smirkingly lurk in the verdant flora of the language. A small collection, sometimes silly, mostly funny, written with verve of steel. Send more japes, O'Donnell. (Cartoons throughout, hand-drawn by the author.)

Pub Date: Feb. 19, 1993

ISBN: 0-679-40040-0

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
LET NOTHING YOU DISMAY
by Mark O'Donnell

- BOOK REVIEW
GETTING OVER HOMER
by Mark O'Donnell

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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.