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CATFISH AND THE DELTA

Name: CATFISH AND THE DELTA
Author: Richard Schweid
ISBN: 0-89815-455-3

CONFEDERATE FISH FARMING IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA

by Richard Schweid ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 1992

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One hundred thousand acres of the fertile land of the Mississippi Delta are under ponds; where cotton was king for more than century, the channel catfish now rules. As with cotton, the money involved is big-time. Schweid (Hot Peppers, 1980), who has lived in the Delta, describes Belzoni (``THE CATFISH CAPITAL OF THE WORLD'') and its unofficial catfish capitol building, the Pig Stand—a barbecue pit at the side of Highway 49. There, the handful of farmers in baseball caps and work clothes, exchanging gossip over cups of coffee, have a collective worth in the tens of millions. Catfish farming requires big outlays, Schweid tells us, and although there is no more sharecropping (as with cotton), it brings its own host of unskilled jobs filled by blacks. Those who once chopped cotton now net the catfish from the ponds, scooping fish eggs out of underwater hatcheries (trying to keep their hands away from angry males brooding on their nests) and cleaning fish in plants. Meanwhile, there is some hope: Ed Scott, Jr., owns Pond Fresh Catfish, making him the only black owner of a catfish processing plant in the US: ``I said to my son, `I'm not gonna let them stop me. Let's go on down to Indianola, go through one of those plants and see what it is they're doing that we can't do.' '' Deltans, Schweid explains, love good times: the World Catfish Festival in April; the annual Catfish Races (there are bleachers and an announcer); and B.B. King Day in Indianola. King, who left his hometown a tractor-driver and returned a world-famous musician, plays a show in the city park for his old neighbors. A most interesting tour of an old and unique American enclave—fecund, unchanged, and inward-looking.

Pub Date: March 15, 1992

ISBN: 0-89815-455-3

Page Count: 192

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
CHE’S CHEVROLET, FIDEL’S OLDSMOBILE
by Richard Schweid

- BOOK REVIEW
THE COCKROACH PAPERS
by Richard Schweid

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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.