A lively insider's look at life on the Seine from seasoned Associated Press correspondent Rosenblum (Who Stole the News?, 1993, etc.). When Rosenblum finds himself kicked out of his apartment on the Ile Saint-Louis, he buys a houseboat and explores the river that harbors France's soul. He begins at the source in Burgundy, where water wells up unspectacularly from three cracks among the remains of a Gallo-Roman temple, and ends at the mouth at Le Havre, where the Germans made a last stand in 1944. Along the way, he offers history as far back as the Paleocene period when the bed of the Seine was the floor of a shallow inland sea, investigates river towns like Giverny, which inspired Monet to realize those radiant panels of water lilies, laments pollution by nuclear power plants that generate 75 percent of France's electricity, and explains the economic evolution of a waterway that once flourished as mom-and- pop-run barges busily transported freight only to lose out when state-owned rails and roads undercut rates. Peppered throughout are anecdotal asides: a sampling of items that float by his launch in one half-hour period includes ``one mattress, countless Styrofoam containers, a bloated pig, several condoms, dead fish, live ducks, a television set, someone's jacket, someone else's trousers, many people's lunch.'' He also presents an astounding collection of river dwellers that makes one wonder ``if the Seine manufactures characters or merely attracts them.'' And despite his obvious Francophile tendencies, he recognizes that the homeless huddling in camps under the bridges represent ``the flotsam of a society headed for trouble.'' Rosenblum's prose brilliantly captures the spirit of the Seine—the name originates from the Gallic Sequana, meaning twisting or tranquil. Alternating romantic and acerbic tones inspire admiration, if not always envy, for a historically revered culture.
Pub Date: April 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-201-62461-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1994
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
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