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TO WATCH THE WAVES GO BY

Name: TO WATCH THE WAVES GO BY
Author: Peter Stoneley
ISBN: 978-1-4196-3484-0

by Peter Stoneley ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 16, 2006

Sweetly idiosyncratic life musings of a periodic ex-pat on the rustic side of Corfu.

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Stoneley, an annual sojourner to the island of Corfu in Greece, reflects on the small stories that make up his days.

An Englishman, the author and his family discovered Corfu in the late ’70s. Here, he sets down, as if in a pocket journal, things that caught his fancy during the 25 years since. Some of the stories are short, such as brief, amateur ethnographic forays into island customs and mind-sets that Stoneley found curious and often had to fathom to make his life more comfortable as an in-comer. Some stories endure longer, or appear sporadically throughout the book, most pertaining to the purchase of a house and property in a small, seaside village. The author’s writing has a quiet quality to it; it’s modest, as if he is fashioning these recollections for himself as much as any reader. The narrative feels natural, without any sense of striving to please. The appeal of his unvarnished conversational tone comes at a price–readers will learn much more than they want to know about the state of Stoneley’s hemorrhoids, the folderol of buying a house abroad and the travails of foreign banking. But he also knows a lovely, transporting image when it bites him: carpets of wild, lilac anemones, blazing yellow oxalis, â€œtiny, electric blue flowers underfoot, colours in every direction” (gardening being one of Stoneley’s strong suits); the night two boys dropped by with guitar and bouzouki and played a little rooftop music, while, across the street, an outdoor movie was shown against a screen of bamboo. And he has a gratifyingly eccentric sense of humor, ruminating on the eye in his goat’s head soup as he dickers over the price of concrete, or wondering how an egg got inside a narrow-necked earthenware pot without breaking. He is content, after a couple pages, to shrug–â€œIt remained a riddle.”

Sweetly idiosyncratic life musings of a periodic ex-pat on the rustic side of Corfu.

Pub Date: May 16, 2006

ISBN: 978-1-4196-3484-0

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

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.