Manteghi weaves together her diverse international life experiences to create an insightful, lively self-portrait.
In Manteghi’s memoir, she reflects with compassion and humor on her year spent as a 34-year-old battling breast cancer, interspersing memories of her childhood as an Iranian in Canada and her pre-cancer years in Bosnia.
Manteghi, unlike many of her peers, didn’t spend her early 30s planning the perfect domestic family life. Having immigrated to Canada from Iran as a young child, Manteghi never felt wholly in sync with her Toronto home or Canadian peers. After graduating from law school, Manteghi pursued adventure abroad as an activist in Bosnia. There, she found a home as she developed deep connections with the people, philanthropic interests and a romantic relationship. Her breast cancer diagnosis ended all of that. Manteghi returned to Toronto, spending a year in chemotherapy. With humor, she examines her experience, stating that she had replaced her idolization of Christiane Amanpour with Kylie Minogue as she channeled the “KylieChemo look.” In more serious moments, she realized that the family life she’d assumed would happen might not. The experience changed her. The narrative is initially a little confusing; the chronology isn’t linear, and the reader may wonder why Manteghi was in Bosnia, for example. For the reader not well-versed in Bosnian or Iranian history, a brief introduction of the countries’ histories would have been helpful. As the narrative progresses, however, the reader becomes more familiar with Manteghi’s personal history, and the nonlinearity of the stories becomes easier to follow. Manteghi’s choosing among career ambition, romance and family may be particularly interesting for other young people faced with similar decisions.
Manteghi weaves together her diverse international life experiences to create an insightful, lively self-portrait.Pub Date: April 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0615970714
Page Count: 210
Publisher: Forefront Media Group
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
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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