Ronald Reagan's adoptive son offers a digressive tract that combines—not always effectively or gracefully—a celebration of his father's presidency, a neoconservative agenda for national renewal, score-settling asides on those he feels have done him wrong, and ad hominem attacks on Bill Clinton that might give the American Spectator pause. Drawing on his father's conceit (borrowed from Pilgrim John Winthrop) of an America that shows the rest of the world just how to create a paradise on earth, the San Diegobased radio talk-show host provides a cluttered blueprint for restoring the putatively lost glories of yesteryear when Reagan päre was cutting taxes, rearming the US military, jump-starting the domestic economy, and otherwise giving the country greater confidence in itself. His four-point program envisions realigning the roles played by mainstays of American society. By way of example, he would cut the federal budget and shrink government while reasserting national sovereignty. In like vein, the author urges that job-creating business be relieved of regulatory and tax burdens. He commends supporting civic and religious institutions that can take up the slack left by welfare reform and castigates government agencies at all levels for their paternalistic intrusions into the American family. At least as interested in tearing down as in building up, Reagan the Younger assails Clinton early and often, characterizing him as a slick (rather than great) communicator and the make-love- not-war president. Nor does the aggrieved author neglect to get even for slights he has suffered at the hands of Republican Party officials, Nancy Reagan (who on occasion has treated him, well, like a stepchild), and others. An odd sociopolitical amalgam, of interest mainly for the personal insights a lightweight son can provide on his world-class father, rather than its anti-Democrat invective or pro forma attempt to revive the Reagan Revolution.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-7852-7236-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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