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ANOTHER MOTHER

Name: ANOTHER MOTHER
Author: Ross Kenneth Urken
ISBN: 978-976-828-604-8

by Ross Kenneth Urken ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 21, 2019

A memorable hybrid of heartfelt memoir and fond commemoration framed in Caribbean history, familial turmoil, and...

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A journalist reflects on his New Jersey childhood and the nurturing Jamaican nanny who raised him.

Urken’s resonant debut memoir doubles as a biographical tribute to Dezna Sanderson, the “Jamaican Mary Poppins” who helped raise him for over a decade. As the doting family nanny, Sanderson emerged as the saving grace in a Jewish household fractured by dysfunction from his parents’ tumultuous “screaming matches” as well as drug addiction and mental illness. Since her arrival in 1988, Sanderson became Urken’s anchor, a sweet, sage mother figure whose own Seventh-day Adventist sumptuary laws nicely mirrored Jewish restrictions. As generous as she was in her caregiving for the author and his sister, Nicole, she remained reserved about her own background. Urken writes with clarity and intense focus about his indebtedness to Sanderson, who was “like a protective buffer,” and he shares many treasured memories of their time together. This fondness continued into his adulthood until the devastating news of Sanderson’s death in 2010. Eager to discover and honor more of her heritage, the author traveled to Jamaica. Despite tight-lipped family members, he launched a cross-cultural exploration of her life in Mahogany Hill, seeking “to find the root of her strong voice to understand my own.” Urken immersed himself in Jamaica’s history of political unrest involving the CIA’s covert military invasion of the region in the 1970s and the ensuing economic destabilization, which sabotaged the Sanderson family’s pineapple plantation. Many fled the region, and Sanderson, despite birthing eight children, wound up on the Urkens’ doorstep. A family visit to Sanderson’s gravesite forms one of the memoir’s more poignant scenes. The author’s memories and descriptions of Sanderson are aptly adulatory in honoring a cherished, compassionate caregiver who, in large part, is responsible for the man he has become today.

A memorable hybrid of heartfelt memoir and fond commemoration framed in Caribbean history, familial turmoil, and unconditional maternal love.

Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2019

ISBN: 978-976-828-604-8

Page Count: 206

Publisher: Ian Randle Publishers

Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2019

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.