A probing, heartfelt memoir about the true meaning of family.
Salz, a journalist, pays tribute to the governess who raised her and offered a blueprint of compassion within a withholding, sometimes cruel family. Elizabeth Cecilia Hanna, or “Miss Hanna,” began working in the Salzs’ Upper East Side townhouse in 1940, just before the author’s birth, joining the servant and cook also employed by the upper-middle-class Jewish family. An orphan with no family—and only one friend—Miss Hanna became young Salz’s only solace and companion. Though Salz’s older brother struggled with behavioral problems, her parents preferred his company; even her success in school couldn’t win the affection of her exacting, mean-spirited father. Salz’s mother, Betty, a former teen model and indisputable beauty, provided the perfect foil for middle-aged Miss Hanna’s disregard for appearances. Though Betty didn’t have much maternal instinct herself—she forced Salz to swim with Miss Hanna at a public beach instead of at the beach club because of her daughter’s large birthmark—her resentment of Salz’s devotion to her governess was apparent. “How can you love that ugly woman?” she routinely asked her daughter. This memoir is, in part it seems, an act of contrition: In her senior year of high school, Salz neglected to visit Miss Hanna while she was dying of cancer; she never got to say goodbye. It’s also an act of witness, uncovering the shadowy details of Miss Hanna’s origins and the painful family secrets in her own past. As Salz recalls her New York City childhood with Miss Hanna by her side, midcentury New York comes to life through her vivid descriptions; a chapter about her early love of Broadway musicals is particularly poignant. Though the book lacks a strong narrative arc, its greatest strengths are Salz’s self-awareness and her insight into the issues of class that often separate domestic caretakers from their charges.
This moving remembrance proves the importance of kindness in a child’s life and the redemptive power of carrying on our loved ones’ legacies.
Pub Date: May 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0996020701
Page Count: 166
Publisher: Richard Books
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
