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OUTERCOURSE

Name: OUTERCOURSE
Author: Mary Daly
ISBN: 0-06-250194-1

THE BE-DAZZLING VOYAGE

by Mary Daly ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1993

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Charming Daly (Feminist Ethics/Boston College; Pure Lust, 1984; Gyn/Ecology, 1978, etc.) gives us her side of the story in this ``account of my time/space travels and ideas.'' Daly has always dispensed pretty strong medicine, and in the last few years seems to have opened her own sanatorium: This book employs the same fractured vocabulary and inverted syntax that she established as her lingua franca in Gyn/Ecology. We are taken through the four ``spiral galaxies'' of Daly's life: the first encompassing the period from her birth in 1928 to the publication of The Church and the Second Sex some 40 years later; the second concentrating on the early 70's, when Daly renounced her Catholicism and became a ``Revolting Hag'' bent upon overthrowing patriarchy; the third carrying her deeper into the fray through the increasing extremity of her opinions as they developed up to 1987; and the fourth bringing her into the present/future. What rescues this from complete opacity is Daly's willingness to illustrate every new turn in her thought with some personal incident—usually something that occurred on holiday or with one of her cats—and to return frequently and vehemently to the bitter experiences of her childhood and youth to explain her intellectual genesis. Moreover, the most lurid passages of Dalyese (``Having arrived at the Moment of participation in the Background Present, we Unfold our wings and soar into an expanded Present which is off the calendars, off the clocks or clockocracy'') sound a good deal more congenial when held against the flatness of her ``normal'' prose (``I landed in Paris and was filled with wonder and ecstasy at every sight and sound. This was all like a fairy tale, and it was happening to me''). There is a ``Great Summation'' of sorts at the end, which doesn't really clear things up. Nothing new for Daly fans, and little help to Daly scholars: Like all good preachers, Daly reveals very little of herself in the end.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-06-250194-1

Page Count: 480

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.