The emphasis here leans more to Karen than to Richard, the acknowledged brains behind their arrangements. Their story is classic Americana, in both success and failure: two clean-cut kids from the suburbs who just love to make music together hit it big, and when Richard develops a pill addiction and Karen hits a low of 78 pounds, Coleman lays the blame on their overbearing and undemonstrative parents. To this day their mother insists that there was no psychological reason behind her daughter's starvation, believing instead that ``Karen was simply gripped by an iron determination to get very thin and stay that way.'' Coleman also traces Karen's problems back to early negative media comments about their ``square'' appearance amid the wild atmosphere in the music industry of the late-60's. While he keeps insisting that the group was never bland, Coleman's anecdotes reinforce the plain-toast image: their reproducing, note for note, the arrangements from their records when performing live; changing lyrics—e.g., ``sleep with you'' became ``be with you''—so as not to sully Karen's good- girl image; and proudly appearing at the Nixon White House in 1972. It is true that at the time of Karen's death relatively little was known about anorexia nervosa, but the eating disorder has since become familiar, and Coleman's glancing treatment of it reveals little that is new. A dual-celebrity bio that retells well-worn stories.
Pub Date: April 13, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-018345-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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