A journalist's unsentimental and impressionistic reminiscences of his experiences as a free-lance correspondent in embattled Afghanistan. Schultheis (Bone Games, 1985; The Hidden West, 1982) had trekked through the mountainous Asian republic on several occasions during the 1970's, long before Soviet invaders encountered implacable resistance from poorly armed guerrilla bands. Though he had been at pains to avoid serving in the US military during Vietnam, the author accompanied a photographer friend back to Afghanistan in 1984 to cover mujahedin campaigns against occupying USSR forces. To his great surprise, Schultheis found himself irresistibly drawn both to combat and to the primitive Muslim freedom fighters with whom he traveled on repeated returns to this hard land. (The title here derives from a translation of the Pashto word for the anonymous broadsides insurgents employed to rally support in urban centers.) Unaccountably, the author also found himself relishing, even reveling in, the horrific ironies, idiocies, and narrow escapes of a murderous conflict that held little interest for the outside world, and the text offers a rather full ration of the grim anecdotes he and fellow newsmen found hilarious during their typically harrowing time in country. Still, Schultheis seems not to have taken complete leave of his senses; indeed, he endured deep sorrow for the loss of fallen comrades. After Afghanistan, moreover, his personal symbol for our time became ``a bombed and blasted village, its people streaming away across a ruined landscape, and a refugee camp at the dead end of the line.'' Haunting vignettes of civil strife's barbarities—and fatal attractions.
Pub Date: April 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-517-58861-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1992
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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