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THE MAKING OF TORO

Name: THE MAKING OF TORO
Author: Mark Sundeen
ISBN: 0-7432-3616-5

BULLFIGHTS, BROKEN HEARTS, AND ONE AUTHOR’S QUEST FOR THE ACCLAIM HE SO RICHLY DESERVES

by Mark Sundeen ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Well-turned ambiguities, delivered with the steady patter of a late-night TV host’s extended comic monologue.

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The author of Car Camping (not reviewed) on his schizophrenic visit to the world of bullfighting.

It’s Sundeen who spent the morning “emptying tubs of human poo” in a Utah national park before his agent calls to ask if he can tackle a book on bullfighting in Mexico. Mark may have his doubts about his qualifications for this gig, but his alter ego, Travis LaFrance—the name under which Sundeen published “a slim paperback about hunting for desert rodents with highly trained falcons”—has none. Travis “would never look back at his travels and wonder who gives a shit about what some middle-class American has to say about the world,” notes his creator/doppelgänger. Mark may balk as a torero “rams the little knife straight into the bull’s brain, probing in tight circles like he’s scraping the meat from a coconut,” but when Travis writes it all down, he finds bravery draped with finesse: “How brave the man. How noble the beast, how profound the ritual!” Women shimmer like moths about Travis’s flame; those who encounter Mark are less inclined to swoon: “My car’s full,” said the girl. “You can meet us there if you want.” Never does Mark measure up to Travis, and so determinedly does he deploy humor as his foil that we can virtually see the chords of his neck muscles as he strains to eternalize the pitch of low irony. True to form, Mark loses the girl in the end, though not before entertaining forays into cockfights, flamenco dancing, and reminiscences about his earlier attempt to join the Prague Renaissance. (He boarded the wrong train and wound up in Budapest.) Along the way, Sundeen also gets in some good jabs at journalists who become instant experts. “How do you know so much about bullfighting anyway?” asks an acquaintance. “I’ve read quite a few books,” Mark replies.

Well-turned ambiguities, delivered with the steady patter of a late-night TV host’s extended comic monologue.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-7432-3616-5

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE UNSETTLERS
by Mark Sundeen

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MAN WHO QUIT MONEY
by Mark Sundeen

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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.