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PAUL McCARTNEY

BEHIND THE MYTH

``Will you still love me when I'm 64?'' wrote Beatle Paul on the Sgt Pepper album (1967). ``Perhaps not,'' readers of this thoughtful biography may reply, especially if the McCartney (now 51) whom British journalist Benson presents doesn't soon loosen up a bit. Benson is no icon-smasher like Albert Goldman, but neither is he a hagiographer like McCartney's other recent biographer, Geoffrey Giuliano (Blackbird, 1991). Instead, he offers a well- informed (myriad interviews, including with McCartney), balanced portrait of the artist as a control-freak, though one with the courage of his convictions. The author traces McCartney's career from his working-class Liverpool upbringing through the Beatles and Wings years and into the present; given the publicity that's always surrounded McCartney, much of this is necessarily familiar fare— but Benson's psychological insights aren't: ``Paul McCartney's relationship with his father lies at the core of his personality and he has never perceived himself as anything less than a dutiful son.'' Benson's discussion of McCartney's recent life as a re- creation of his childhood backs up that statement: Though fabulously wealthy, the musician takes a public train and bus to his London office each day, then returns home to his children and wife Linda—who, upon his insistence, does all the family's cooking, laundering, and ironing. But the same ``need to control'' that's allowed McCartney to carve out a relatively normal life in the midst of pop-stardom has also, Benson says, led to his recent musical failures: ``McCartney shows no...willingness to surrender himself to outside musical direction....But without Lennon's cynicism on hand to define the parameters, his songs all too often drift into slushy sentimentality.'' Solid Beatleiana, to be set on the shelf alongside Alan Clayson's Ringo Starr (p. 823). (Forty b&w photographs.)

Pub Date: Jan. 15, 1993

ISBN: 0-575-05200-7

Page Count: 289

Publisher: Gollancz/Trafalgar

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1992

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THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

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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NUTCRACKER

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

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