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PRETTY VACANT

Name: PRETTY VACANT
Author: Phil Strongman
ISBN: 978-1-55652-752-4

A HISTORY OF UK PUNK

by Phil Strongman ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2008

Sex Pistols fans will appreciate this one, but those looking for a comprehensive history of the era and its sounds should...

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Music journalist Strongman (Metal Box: Stories from John Lydon’s Public Image Limited, 2007, etc.) recasts the history of British punk as the story of two bands and a bunch of also-rans.

Actually, the Clash don’t get that much ink either; Strongman spends the majority of his time making the case that the Sex Pistols and their marketing Svengali Malcolm McLaren were punk’s be-all and end-all, and therein lies the rub. Had the book been subtitled something along the lines of The Sex Pistols and UK Punk, it would have been far more legit. Granted, John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten), Sid Vicious and the rest of the Pistols kicked it all off in 1976 at London’s legendary 100 Club…or did they? Maybe it was the Clash who started things reeling on the other side of town that very same year. Maybe it was the Ramones or Television or the New York Dolls at CBGB in New York City. Or maybe it was…well, according to Strongman, it was all Pistols, all the time. But music historians tend to disagree, which means his book has a major, insurmountable credibility problem. If Strongman had been more inclusive, and if he’d used Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain’s classic Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk as a template, he might have had something. As it is, this feels like a 300-plus-page magazine article.

Sex Pistols fans will appreciate this one, but those looking for a comprehensive history of the era and its sounds should look elsewhere.

Pub Date: April 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-1-55652-752-4

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2008

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.