by Mary Anne Weaver ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2002
Clear-eyed reporting and graceful prose in a highly readable—and sobering—work of political geography for policymakers and...
Pakistan is a terrorist haven, a nest of corruption, a tinhorn dictatorship—and, writes New Yorker correspondent and long-time Pakistan resident Weaver, a supposed friend whose future is of great strategic importance to the US.
Weaver (A Portrait of Egypt, 1999) prophesies that “the real battleground [against Islamicist terrorists] will be Pakistan,” the strife-torn country at the crossroads of South Asia and Central Asia that has been instrumental in shaping power relations in the region. As, too, has been the American government, which comes in for some hard knocks in Weaver’s pages. To judge by her account, Osama bin Laden was a product of the CIA as much as of the darker side of Arab nationalism, though his wide contacts with Pakistan’s military, scientific, and commercial elite haven’t hurt his ascent. Traveling to places like Karachi, where tensions between Sindhi and Pashtun ethnic factions threaten to erupt in civil war at a moment’s notice, and Peshawar, where “well-appointed villas—including a number owned by Osama bin Laden—nestle concealed behind towering, whitewashed walls,” Weaver talks to fundamentalists and secularists alike, exploring the rifts that obtain among progressives and those who have nearly succeeded in turning Pakistan into a theocracy along the lines of Iran or Taliban-era Afghanistan, stymied only by a military dictatorship as corrupt as any in the world. She does not quite say as much, but one gets the sense that Islamicist victory is imminent—especially because the US is pursuing an antiterrorist policy that targets al-Qaeda almost exclusively while overlooking dozens of Pakistan-based groups that may be more dangerous and murderous still. And if that victory is forthcoming, she warns, “Pakistan could well become the world’s newest failed state—a failed state with nuclear weapons.”
Clear-eyed reporting and graceful prose in a highly readable—and sobering—work of political geography for policymakers and anyone concerned by the risks of an uncertain future.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-374-22894-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2002
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
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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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis
by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
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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developed by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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