Quietly passionate, edifying and inspiring.
A student’s loving tribute to her musical guru.
Growing up in an affluent Bombay family, Devidayal participated in an increasingly Westernized lifestyle. Nonetheless, her mother insisted she must learn to sing Indian classical music from the best teacher available. At age ten she met Dhondutai, a musical disciple of the great singer Alladiya Khan. Dhondutai’s training was rigorous; she instructed Devidayal to start out singing just a single note for weeks, progressing with painstaking slowness through one raga, or musical mode, at a time. Their relationship enfolded the girl in a priceless tradition, which involved knowledge passed down from teacher to student over centuries. In addition to melodies and rhythms, Devidayal absorbed the stories and legends of an illustrious but neglected heritage. Although the physical location of the music room changed a few times, the sacred space that Dhondutai created within and around their lessons remained constant. The author paints herself in the background of this memoir, rendering her teacher’s story in full color. She balances narrative time between the present and Dhondutai’s past, presumably as reported during years of conversation. She seeks to unfold the mystery of why Dhondutai never attained the popular success that seemed to be promised by superlative talent and well-connected teachers, including the fiery diva Kesarbai Kerkar. Devidayal also relates the history of Indian classical music, a blend of Muslim and Hindu influences, and charts the changing roles of female performers, long considered courtesans and unfit for proper society. She pays homage to the precious knowledge with which she was entrusted, not only of the subtle and powerful ragas, but of the art form’s luminaries and their intimate life stories.
Quietly passionate, edifying and inspiring.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-53664-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2008
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
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
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