Poor Jacob—his well-sugared words of wisdom (Jacob the Baker, 1989) have become so popular that petitioners now prevent him from doing any baking. ``I am Jacob the Baker,'' he thinks, ``...if I cannot be what I am, then I cannot be where I am. It is time for me to go.'' So Jacob sets off on a quest for quietude—but finds that people everywhere are hungry for his wisdom, which he dispenses at the slightest invitation (coming upon a freezing old man who says to him, ``I had no place to go,'' Jacob replies: ``Where are any of us going?''). Author benShea, president of the New York Bagel Factory, keeps the faux-pearls of wisdom rolling at a dizzying pace (and headlines each chapter with them in case readers miss the point: e.g., ``Reality Is Only a Memory Ahead of Its Time,'' or, ``A Fool Is Someone Who Knows Too Much to Learn Anything'') until Jacob at last returns home, having learned that ``Wherever We Stop on Our Journey, the First Person We Will Meet is Ourself.'' A self- styled ``fable,'' then, that should please benShea's fans and perhaps a few of Robert Fulghum's, too.
Pub Date: Sept. 9, 1991
ISBN: 0-679-40699-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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