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RE-MAKE/RE-MODEL

Name: RE-MAKE/RE-MODEL
Author: Michael Bracewell
ISBN: 978-0-306-81400-6

BECOMING ROXY MUSIC

by Michael Bracewell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2007

Those with an endless interest in English art movements of the ’60s may find Bracewell’s work endlessly fascinating. Anyone...

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Laborious exploration of a great English rock band’s art-school roots.

British novelist and cultural writer Bracewell has managed to write a book about a musical group that evinces virtually no interest in music. His purported subject is Roxy Music, which emerged in the early 1970s with an unpredictable sound and flashy look to become, with acts like David Bowie and T. Rex, the leaders of glam rock. Bracewell allows more than 300 pages to elapse before getting to the band’s first London rehearsal and closes with the release of its first album. The author marches lugubriously through his subjects’ education at various provincial English art schools during the ’60s, piling up mountains of detail while making obvious points about the confluence of art and style references in Roxy Music’s presentation. The central figure is lead vocalist Bryan Ferry, who studied visual arts in Newcastle with Pop Art figurehead Richard Hamilton (later to design the Beatles’s White Album). Saxophonist Andrew Mackay and keyboardist Brian Eno were similarly instructed at Reading and Winchester, respectively. Looking beyond the obvious influence of artists-provocateurs like Duchamp and Warhol, Bracewell considers the impact of such members of the Roxy orbit as clothing designer Antony Price and hair stylist Keith Wainwright. Ferry, Eno and Mackay are extensively interviewed (without benefit of judicious editing), as are Roxy guitarist Phil Manzanera, drummer Paul Thompson and a host of art-scene types. Ultimately, the author fails to connect the dots for the reader—his voluminous research never pays off with a deeper understanding of ’70s British pop.

Those with an endless interest in English art movements of the ’60s may find Bracewell’s work endlessly fascinating. Anyone who wants to learn something about the band will be swiftly exhausted by this unsifted lode of dead-end minutiae.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2007

ISBN: 978-0-306-81400-6

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Da Capo

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2007

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.