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MAD DOGS AND AN ENGLISHWOMAN

Name: MAD DOGS AND AN ENGLISHWOMAN
Author: Polly Evans
ISBN: 978-0-385-34111-0

TRAVELS WITH SLED DOGS IN CANADA’S FROZEN NORTH

by Polly Evans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 27, 2009

A bold undertaking to be sure, but woefully short on dramatic tension and attention-sustaining adventure.

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Readable but dispensable account of the author’s valiant immersion in the Yukon’s storied dogsledding culture.

“I was going to spend eleven weeks, in the heart of winter, in one of the most inhospitable climes on earth,” writes London-based travel writer Evans (On a Hoof and a Prayer, 2008, etc.), facing the latest of her physically demanding Everywoman adventures with clear-eyed objectivity. She was initially lured by the romantic prospect of working with Yukon sled dogs at Muktuk Kennels, home to some of Canada’s most revered “mushers.” Her plan was to begin with menial work (cleaning out excrement-filled dog kennels) and eventually advance to command a team of sled dogs. The setup promises thrill-a-minute immersion journalism, but Evans delivers a disappointingly secondhand drama. She constantly interrupts her personal narrative to lapse into library-research mode. It seems she’s more comfortable reveling in the woodsy musings of Robert Service, Jack London and other famous writers and poets of the Arctic, or getting vicarious thrills from the exploits of early 20th-century Yukon explorers and gold-hunters. Although Evans’ fascination with the land and its zoological and environmental extremes can make for inspired prose—very few writers have described a mere snowflake with such attentiveness—the constant shifting from hapless amateur dogsledder and kennel custodian to dilettantish Yukon history buff becomes an annoying tactic. Evans maintains admirably defiant enthusiasm in the midst of her bumbling attempts to mix with the filthy, sometimes recalcitrant sled dogs while fending off sickness and frostbite. Unfortunately, the camp banter with her musher mates never seems to go beyond the most cursory conversational snippets. Her sledding companions possess nary a shred of puckish wit nor the slightest predilection for the sort of late-night campfire mischief expected from life-on-the-edge outdoors types.

A bold undertaking to be sure, but woefully short on dramatic tension and attention-sustaining adventure.

Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-385-34111-0

Page Count: 286

Publisher: Delta

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2008

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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

- BOOK REVIEW
IT’S NOT ABOUT THE TAPAS
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.