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OFF THE GRID

Name: OFF THE GRID
Author: Randy Denmon
ISBN: 978-1-5107-1739-8

MY RIDE FROM LOUISIANA TO THE PANAMA CANAL IN AN ELECTRIC CAR

by Randy Denmon ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 4, 2017

A facile narrative about haves traveling in a land of have-nots.

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An engineer and novelist’s account of how he traveled from Louisiana to Panama in an electric car.

Successful but bored with the “yuppie robot” he had become, Louisiana native Denmon (Lords of an Empty Land, 2015, etc.) decided he needed to “get off the grid, away from the cell phones and emails.” So he and a peripatetic college friend named Dean packed Denmon’s new Tesla Model S electric car with a GPS, two long, 240-volt extension cords, and “all the plugs and adapters I could lay my hands on” and headed south across the Rio Grande. Beyond possible encounters with crooked immigration agents, drug lords, carjackers, and roving bandits, they faced other dangers and challenges. Fully charged and traveling on flat, well-paved roads at an average of 65 miles per hour, the Tesla had a driving range of 265 miles. However, the terrain they encountered between Mexico and Panama was highly unpredictable, and the roads were often covered with large asphalt chunks that they had to dodge in order to avoid damaging a car that sat “six inches—at best—off the ground.” Finding locations where they could charge the car also proved difficult. “It would likely take all of our creative juices and ad-libbing to keep the sleek, high-tech machine moving south every day,” writes the author. Sometimes, they found hotels with the electrical outlets they needed; other times they had to beg and bribe and make due with whatever equipment they found. Denmon’s experiment in high-tech travel through the developing world is intriguing, but his observations about the countries through which he traveled are as limited and simplistic as they are pedestrian. With the exceptions of Costa Rica, “the planet’s biggest natural amusement park,” and former American protectorate Panama, Denmon typically depicts Central America as consistently dangerous and primitive and the U.S. as a place that has the “comforts that most of the world craves.”

A facile narrative about haves traveling in a land of have-nots.

Pub Date: April 4, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-5107-1739-8

Page Count: 248

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017

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.