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IT’S NOT ABOUT THE TAPAS

Name: IT’S NOT ABOUT THE TAPAS
Author: Polly Evans
ISBN: 0-553-81556-3

AROUND SPAIN ON TWO WHEELS

by Polly Evans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2005

As unpretentious as a tapas bar, and as brimming with savory morsels.

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In a highly likable debut, former British journalist Evans tours Spain on her bicycle.

It’s a very straightforward affair: the author pedals her way through the Pyrenees, then hops a plane south to explore the area between Grenada and Jerez before jumping north once more to take in the wonderful Extremadura. First and foremost, she explains the tapas: “The Spanish like to drink for hours on end . . . but they don’t like to get drunk. And so they snack.” Little rounds of bread and bacalao, eggs with mayonnaise, squares of potato omelet, pickled herring, marinated eel, a small slice of tripe, all find their way down the author’s gullet, and she describes them with such relish it feels as if we’re eating along with her. Meanwhile, equally vivid are her encounters with living creatures (dogs, hogs, unpleasant hostel keepers). Evans only glancingly delineates the landscapes she passes through, though she makes up for that with long rambles through the countryside’s history—and Spain is nothing if not full of outrageous history. The writer has a fine time with Juana the Mad, so fiercely possessive of her husband that she refused to have him buried and instead “embarked on a tour of Spain with Felipe’s fast-rotting corpse.” She also does well with Wilfred the Hairy of Catalonia, the unfortunate fate of the Duchess of Alba’s feet, the little cider mill that acted as a safe house for downed pilots during WWII, and the plague of witches that visited Zugarramurdi in the 13th century. She gets bonked, a cycling term for the discombobulation that ensues from spending more calories in a day than you put in the body, and she suffers faulty directions from all sorts of deceptive and cruel experts. The trip ends in the Extremadura countryside, with Evans cycling by “the occasional aged farmer with his donkey tilling the land and, every now and then, a posse of black-haired pigs.”

As unpretentious as a tapas bar, and as brimming with savory morsels.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2005

ISBN: 0-553-81556-3

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Bantam UK/Trafalgar

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2004

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
MAD DOGS AND AN ENGLISHWOMAN
by Polly Evans

- BOOK REVIEW
ON A HOOF AND A PRAYER
by Polly Evans

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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.