Pat McManus (Real Ponies Don't Go Oink, 1991, etc.), the Falstaff of Field and Stream, gathers his fall collection of sporting silliness for his eighth trek down his own well-beaten path. Ever mindful of Mother Nature and always careful of the environment, McManus once again recycles several of his most popular characters (wife Bun, Retch Sweeny, Rancid Crabtree, et al.), who strut their usual stuff along with rotten neighbor-kid Felton and rich guy G. Thomas (Goosey) Smith. The lead is played, of course, by the author, who takes the pratfalls like the old trouper he is. In an autobiographical mood (his favorite mood), he admits to doing public relations for the firm that made the world's supply of bim toggles on zitflangs. Blame him for that classic slogan: ``We toggle your bims!'' There are some pleasantries on being poor and on mean Christmas gifts that ring true, but there's also the feeling that the old domesticated woodsman is coasting just a tad from time to time. There's the hunting and fishing fooling, naturally. This time out, in his angling for laughs, McManus has a few strikes, but he doesn't get his limit. As he says, ``that's the way fishing goes. Sometimes nothing much happens.'' Anyway, the company isn't bad, and fans will be quite satisfied to go along. No masterpiece of comic invention, but at least a workmanlike assemblage, with few springs, bolts, or nuts left out.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-8050-2042-X
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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