A mesmerizing voyage into the thickets of questions about what it means to be human.
Erard (Um…: Slips, Stumbles and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean, 2007) reports the results of his attempts to locate people who are able to learn multiple languages.
These people are called hyperpolyglots, and the most famous of them appears throughout the author’s compelling text: Giuseppe Mezzofanti, a 19th-century Bolognese priest who supposedly knew more than 20 languages, maybe even more. Erard pursued Mezzofanti’s story to Bologna but was frustrated by the camouflage of history that hides the priest’s true accomplishments. How much did he really know? How can anyone know that many languages? Are there comparable people today? During his journey, Erard discovered some other troubling questions: What does it mean to “know a language”? The author visited multilingual cultures, viewed slides of a thin-sliced brain, reviewed research on language and the brain and talked with some contemporary hyperpolyglots—one of whom studies and reviews most of the day. There are some moments of density in the narrative, but moments of lightness as well—e.g., the fact that gum chewing improves the recall of memories. Near the end the author looks at a competition in Belgium that gathered some of the most noted hyperpolyglots, and he concludes that such folks need the “neural hardware” to reach such lofty levels as well as a sense of purpose and a self-definition as a language learner.
A mesmerizing voyage into the thickets of questions about what it means to be human.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4516-2825-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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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