WHITE SAVAGES IN THE SOUTH SEAS

Name: WHITE SAVAGES IN THE SOUTH SEAS
Author: Mel Kernahan
ISBN: 1-85984-978-4

by Mel Kernahan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 30, 1995

"Some Enchanted Evening'' it isn't, but Kernahan opens up new vistas for those intrepid adventurers who may wish to follow...

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Journalist Kernahan spotlights trouble in paradise in this highly insightful portrait of French Polynesia.

Kernahan spent much time in the South Seas, as a young wife and mother cruising with the Rotary Club in 1959, convalescing after a motorcycle accident in 1965, back the following year as something more than a tourist, traveling and working there for the next 30 years. Kernahan feels her relationship with the South Sea natives truly began when she was in the hospital, where she saw the islanders without their jovial exterior, in pain or tending their sick relatives. After that she delved further into the Polynesian national character, trying to discover things the Bureau of Tourism wanted to keep under wraps. Kernahan's attempts to go through official channels were often frustrated, but in the end she did manage to find out more than the average visitor. She stayed in natives' homes; she discussed politics with them. She discovered them to be not at all the childlike savages of popular myth. In fact, she declares, it is the European population of the islands who are the savages. Kernahan learned of the half-Polynesian political activist Pouvanaa a Oopa, a WWI hero who became the first Polynesian to win a seat in the French National Assembly and was eventually exiled and jailed in France; of the nuclear testing on the islands, which she considers a disaster, but which some natives look upon as an economic boon. And she meets a wide array of colorful characters, like Susy No Pant, a uniquely Polynesian hooker; Pa Tepaeru-a-Tupe Ariki Lady Davis, a very domestic South Pacific queen; and Hinano, who posed as a Polynesian dancer in California until she was discovered to be the half-black daughter of an L.A. whore.

"Some Enchanted Evening'' it isn't, but Kernahan opens up new vistas for those intrepid adventurers who may wish to follow her.

Pub Date: Nov. 30, 1995

ISBN: 1-85984-978-4

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Verso

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1995

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.