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STRANGE DAYS

MY LIFE WITH AND WITHOUT JIM MORRISON

Narcissistic memoir of, mostly, a love affair with Jim Morrison. When Kennealy met the rock star in the third-to-last year of his life, they shook hands and there was a ``visible shower of bright blue sparks.'' ``What are you?'' Morrison asked. Kennealy replied that she was a witch—a Celtic high priestess (recently, Kennealy has written several Celtic-themed sword-and-sorcery sagas: The Silver Branch, 1988, etc.). Then, she says, she and Morrison were married by her Celtic coven—and, in a ``blaze of love and passion ignited,'' they consummated their union six times in two hours. Morrison (who never lived with Kennealy during their year of wedlock) is a nebulous presence here, impossible to visualize by manner or by the romance-novel speeches supplied for him, and appears mostly as a foil to the Kennealy ego—which is queen-sized. It is also imperious (``[the Woodstock crowd was] some Third World country—one with no food, pidgin speech patterns, indifferent latrine habits, even native handicrafts...if one more person says to me `Good vibes, huh?' I am going to punch him/her in the mouth''); disingenuous (despite taking acid, pot, cocaine, codeine, Valium, and numerous other drugs, Kennealy claims that she was ``not an addict''); vehement (her rival for Morrison's affections was a ``slut, a junkie, a whore, and possibly a murderess''); and bombastic (at book's end, Kennealy interviews herself ``because nobody else ever asks me the right fucking questions, okay?''). Much ado about the high priestess, not enough about the Lizard King. (Eight pages of b&w photographs—not seen.)

Pub Date: May 8, 1992

ISBN: 0-525-93419-7

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1992

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THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

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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NUTCRACKER

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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