Personal reminiscences of an aspiring American writer's life in France, mixed in with a vigorous dose of French history, by the author of A Faint Cold Fear, Year of the Dragon, etc.—a treat for Francophiles and Daley fans alike. Daley first traveled to France a few years after the end of WW II, when, at age 23, he dreamed of writing the great American novel and had resolved to follow Fitzgerald's trail. In Nice, he fell in love almost instantly with a local girl, battled red tape and disapproving parents to marry her and bring her back to the States, and began a lifelong association with a country he had relished at first sight. A later stint as a Paris-based foreign correspondent during the de Gaulle era offered opportunities to wander around the country with his family and interview interesting local people, making this reminiscence a generally pleasant mixture of personal tales (the long, strange life of his Swiss/British/French hotelier father-in-law) and brief snatches of local history (the resident popes of Avignon). The charm of the book lies in its details—e.g., Daley's officially registering his daughter's birth by handwriting her vital statistics in an enormous ledger at the local marie. Most readers will also sympathize with Daley's eventual exasperation at French society's xenophobia and the gnawing homesickness that finally brought him back to the States. An engaging story of a man's love affair with a country, and a congenial portrait of one writer's life.
Pub Date: July 14, 1991
ISBN: 0-316-17185-9
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1991
IN THE NEWS
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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