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THE IRISH WAY

Name: THE IRISH WAY
Author: Robert Emmett Ginna
ISBN: 0-375-50430-3

A WALK THROUGH IRELAND’S PAST AND PRESENT

by Robert Emmett Ginna ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 8, 2003

This Ireland is a place where both society and solitude can be easily had, where the remains of the ancient past can be...

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A good-natured, noodling walk down the length of Ireland, full of agreeable digressions and historical marginalia, from former Little, Brown editor-in-chief Ginna.

This is a satisfying Baedecker of a book, unhurried and curious, not preoccupied with politics in a land rife with them, though not averse to shoving its oar into the debates that brew in the pubs. Ginna would like to know if the recent technological investments, Euro infusions, and the go-go economy have changed this land he knows and loves so well: the green, bosomy hills; the thatched cottages, peat, and Travelers; the theater and universities; the rural and agricultural. So he takes a walk, from wild Donegal’s Malin Head to Cork. Ginna is good company, happy to stop at the pique of any fancy, with a ready humor (on a gout diagnosis: “I had been living like a mendicant friar. Could this be?”), and only the occasional affectation: “Mike Mullins, for so he was, ushered me in to a large room.” He is also a whiz at local history and will, it is guaranteed, make even those readers without a religious bone in their bodies fascinated by the crumbling monasteries, abbeys, and churches he visits. He is everywhere and all at once, describing ring forts, racehorses, Irish literature, Bronze Age tombs, casting a fly on the Blackwater, perusing the work of the ancient scholar-monks at Clonmacnoise (“neither prudish nor humorless. Thanks to them the lusty sagas of the pre-Christian Irish were preserved”). He does report on the economic development of the country, but he’s more at home in the pubs and ruins and at the Foyle Film Festival.

This Ireland is a place where both society and solitude can be easily had, where the remains of the ancient past can be communed with, and where the present—from the Troubles to the high-tech—is abating and abiding in proper order.

Pub Date: July 8, 2003

ISBN: 0-375-50430-3

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2003

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.