A warmly funny, wide-ranging, and off-kilter spiritual odyssey.
An antic memoir about a woman exploring the byways of New Age spiritualism.
The long string of problems and bizarre encounters in Martenson’s (Diary of a Beverly Hills Matchmaker, 2014) autobiography begins when, while clearing her Los Angeles house of “SICLW” (or “Shit I Can Live Without”), she made the impulsive decision to throw out a small Buddha statue treasured by her husband, Adolfo. The housecleaning was part of a spiritual journey she was taking with her friend Julie and held special appeal to Martenson as a kind of psychic counterweight to her job as a “successful, well-known, high-end matchmaker for affluent men.” Her quest met with steady resistance from her husband, who succinctly urged her to lay off the New Age stuff, but it also got an enormous energy boost from her visits to a place called the “Imagine Center”; there, she met a teacher known as “Goddess Tauheedah,” who tutored Martenson and Julie in the ways of the mystical world. Along the way (and accompanied most of the time by Adolfo’s irascible skepticism), the author digresses on dozens of side topics, from adventures in astral projection to the idea of a lurking order of Reptilians bent on world domination. The book has some serious didactic aims about spirituality and detoxification: “Though not all psychics and mediums are vegan or even vegetarian, for me, it is a package deal,” she writes at one point, “It’s about consciousness.” There’s even an appendix with wholesome recipes. However, its main attractions are very much grounded in Martenson’s zany everyday life and her unfailing, infectious happiness in describing it. As a result, her stories will make readers laugh, regardless of where they stand with the Buddha.
A warmly funny, wide-ranging, and off-kilter spiritual odyssey.Pub Date: May 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9975664-0-6
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Cupid's Press
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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