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FRIDAY WAS THE BOMB

Name: FRIDAY WAS THE BOMB
Author: Nathan Deuel
ISBN: 978-1-938604-90-4

FIVE YEARS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

by Nathan Deuel ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2014

The author’s honesty and his self-absorption are two sides of the coin.

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These essays can stand alone, but they cohere as a slim memoir of a young American family’s years of danger in the Middle East.

There have been plenty of better memoirs from war correspondents, but what distinguishes this is its perspective from the sidelines—specifically, the gender reversal, underscored often, as Los Angeles Review of Books contributor Deuel is the husband of Kelly McEvers, NPR’s Baghdad bureau chief through much of the narrative. This job often caused her to be separated from the author and their young daughter. Both journalists like living on the edge, flirting (or more) with danger, asking the existential question, “What’s the point of being safe if you don’t feel fully alive?” One point might be the addition of their daughter, who added a complication, as “the swashbuckling couple who had never shied away from doing anything insane…were about to bring a new baby into this world.” And the world into which she was born was one of car bombs, shooting in the streets, internal and external warfare, and temperatures that could exceed 120 degrees. Amid the death and carnage, the daughter whom Deuel loves was somehow a threat to his masculinity: “Among other problems, it was difficult to be a man, changing diapers, while Kelly swashbuckled her way across Mesopotamia….For Kelly, the Middle East was the big leagues. For me, it was a place to find a good doctor and maybe some daycare. Alone on a Friday night, I’d pour myself another glass and wonder: What could I do? One thing I couldn’t ever do in good taste was complain too much. After all, actual Iraqis had it much worse than I did.” The question, then, is how much complaining is too much?

The author’s honesty and his self-absorption are two sides of the coin.

Pub Date: May 13, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-938604-90-4

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Dzanc

Review Posted Online: March 17, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

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

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.