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IRELAND

Name: IRELAND
Author: Peter Biddlecombe
ISBN: 0-349-11694-6

IN A GLASS OF ITS OWN

by Peter Biddlecombe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 15, 2006

A mildly witty book that goes on a wee bit too long—several hundred pages too long. Paddywhackery, blarney and a bit of the...

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With the notion that parts of Ireland can be characterized as constituents of the national beverage (water, hops, yeast, cork, etc.), a half-Irish, half-befuddled travel-writer tipples his way through every Hibernian county.

From Kerry to Derry, from Down to Offaly, it’s really a long way to Tipperary and, ultimately, to County Clare, childhood home of Biddlecombe (The United Burger States of America, 2003). In each of the 32 counties he visits on his sentimental journey, the favored drink is Guinness. Indeed, the ubiquity of the favored black stuff makes this a kind of record book of Guinness. Local lore is gleaned from interviews with the likes of an “old blattereen with a flat cap and a clay pipe,” “a doddery old kluk,” “an old bluggy earwagger” and, improbably, some “old shlimazls.” Along the way, there are farmers, publicans, servant girls, lords, lunkheads, wits. Biddlecombe visits St. Doologue’s Church (the world’s smallest parish) and the Coast of Co. Donegal (where, it’s reported, “the girls have the Pope’s permission to wear the fat end of their legs below the knee”). Castles, kegs, kings and cattle share the pages with Yeats, Wilde, Nora Barnacle and The Troubles in this Riverdance of words. Almost every chapter is adorned with a joke. And he doesn’t mind a bit more of the black stuff, if you please, as Biddlecombe turns snarky with a plenitude of snotty remarks about all things American. Maybe it’s just the Guinness, but the truth is he’s no Myles na Gopaleen, or even the late Flann O’Brien, when it come to funny Irishmen.

A mildly witty book that goes on a wee bit too long—several hundred pages too long. Paddywhackery, blarney and a bit of the black stuff.

Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2006

ISBN: 0-349-11694-6

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Abacus/Trafalgar

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2006

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.