Another engrossing book from an author who is much more than just a travel writer.
The acclaimed British travel writer and historian retraces his trip after the fall of the Berlin Wall to explore what happened to the hopes and promises of 1989.
This time, MacLean (In North Korea: Lives and Lies in the State of Truth, 2017, etc.) traveled in the reverse direction, from Moscow to Berlin. His six-month journey included Estonia, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, East Germany, and little-known Transnistria. As the author relates, the promise of democracy lasted only so long. Drawn by the newly dynamic economies, the money- and power-hungry moved in. The rise of nationalism—which built on Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt’s teachings that Germans’ utopia was stolen by existentially different and alien opponents—has created enmity and violence toward migrants, the poor, and other marginalized groups. Having used his characteristic talent of drawing insight from those he meets, the author offers fascinating profiles throughout: the Russian chicken czar who shared his rare hallucinogenic truffle, one of the many oligarchs enjoying the new wealth, at least for the moment; and a Nigerian refugee who told the harrowing story of his unflinching determination to get to London. One of MacLean’s contacts described how Russian tacticians were able, by 2007, to shut down Estonian cyberspace and then take over Georgian government websites and interfere in Crimea, Ukraine, France, and the U.S. Not just a travelogue, this is a consistently engaging yet fearsome book that effectively traces the rise of national identity as a myth that paves the way for racism, xenophobia, and even genocide. “Thirty years ago,” writes MacLean, “Europe became whole again….In Berlin, Prague and Moscow I’d danced with so many others on the grave of dictatorships….I convinced myself that our generation was an exception in history, that we’d learned to live by different rules, that we were bound together by freedom….I’ve remade this journey—backwards—to try to understand how it went wrong.”
Another engrossing book from an author who is much more than just a travel writer.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4088-9652-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
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
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
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