Who knew such allure, beauty, and insight lurked under Nebraska’s snowy and stony facade?
Weird title, rapturous prose—a good read.
With phrases both crystalline and luminous, Vivian clasps onto small moments, ones that should be more banal than illuminating, and fleshes them out to their full glory. In 24 brief essays, trivial visions and quotidian observations form the basis of reflections as simple and sturdy as a Shaker chair, deep and insightful as a mystic vision. The essays are subdivided into three units—“Rootedness,” “Women,” and “Signs”—but the divisions do not mar the overarching unity of sincere reflection and remembrance. Beginning and ending with the bleak and barren landscape of Nebraska between Omaha and Lincoln, on roads that provoke in most people only a deadened ennui, Vivian shares his discoveries about life and living. One such observation on these roads (“Only in the glancing, improbable hereafter in fields do I sense a reason behind this sloping distance, or how this distance works itself in me, or how they work together to create a yearning for a different kind of life”) creates a moral typical to the collection, but the morals are unforced. Rather, these voyages of discovery begin in pedestrian places (a woman’s obsession with garbage, childhood vandalism, putting on tennis shoes) where the beauty of the trip lies in the fact that we reach a destination without realizing the journey had begun. The ravishing simplicity of Vivian’s prose is perfectly balanced by the peacock-plumed precision of his metaphors, such as the image of crows as the “dark hangnails of God,” the sound of a broken back as “the click of a gear lock, or a key turning in a rusty door.” The title essay concludes with the realization that what we love is with us always, which may well be the reader’s reaction to Vivian’s haunting prose.
Who knew such allure, beauty, and insight lurked under Nebraska’s snowy and stony facade?Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2001
ISBN: 0-8032-4670-6
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Univ. of Nebraska
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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