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MAKING IT HAPPEN

A MEMOIR OF PEACE CORPS AND VENEZUELA IN THE 1970S

A meticulous and immersive account for service-minded readers, armchair adventurers, and former Peace Corps volunteers.

A former Peace Corps volunteer recalls his South American tenure in the 1970s in this debut memoir.

In the mid-’70s, America was in upheaval, with the Vietnam War and then Watergate dominating the news. But Kendellen did not volunteer for the Peace Corps in response to the bad mojo that gripped the country: “I had no job lined up and no plan in the pipeline after taking five years to graduate with a degree in liberal arts….I looked at the Peace Corps as a low-paying job requiring a two-year commitment. The idea of ‘service’ was irrelevant.” The decision, he notes dramatically, changed his life. The author initially went to Venezuela to coach baseball and expand youth participation in sports. After six months, feeling unfulfilled, he wanted to quit, but the corps encouraged him to join AZUPANE, a program dedicated to children with mental and physical disabilities. Kendellen does not view his years with the corps with rose-colored glasses. During orientation, he was warned that he “would suffer from ‘a change of bowel habits’…in the months ahead.” He continually fended off questions and accusations that he and other corps volunteers were covert CIA agents. He charts Venezuela’s devolution from a nation of “promise and hope” to one that in 2016 was named “the most dangerous country in the world.” He writes evocatively about the lush countryside and teeming cities (including a standoff with an ice cream vendor who demanded 10 pesos for a cup of vanilla). He also etches indelible portraits of his fellow volunteers and locals. But at times in his thorough memoir, which includes black-and-white photographs, he tends to get lost in the weeds. At one point, his parents came to visit after a two-year absence and he gratuitously outlines all his itinerary options. When he quotes his mother’s journals that he uncovered following her death, they are generic travel observations (“Arrived at the airport around 7….Good to see Mike”). The epilogue focuses primarily on the 1976 kidnapping of American businessman William Niehous by radicals (“Researching the kidnapping while writing this book gave me insight into a side of Venezuela I knew nothing about”). Kendellen himself rates only an “As for me” in the concluding paragraph.

A meticulous and immersive account for service-minded readers, armchair adventurers, and former Peace Corps volunteers.

Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-974606-47-4

Page Count: 332

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: June 22, 2018

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NUTCRACKER

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

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

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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