by Sally Belfrage ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1994
A roller coaster memory ride through the McCarthy era. The author's British-born parents were briefly Communists in the late '30s; her father remained a fellow traveler during the period chronicled here (the '50s), though her mother dropped out of politics when the couple split up after WW II. In reliving her teenage years, Belfrage (who died last month) focuses on her quest to renounce her family and become an ``all-American girl.'' The quest seems quixotic for someone whose father is being trailed by the FBI and whose hysterical mother threatens to jump out the window when Belfrage tries to borrow her best black dress, ironic for a blond ``shiksa'' among the Jewish students at the Bronx High School of Science. Inevitably, it goes awry, sometimes comically (she mistakes her classmates, brainy offspring of refugees from Hitler, for all-American kids), and sometimes painfully. She is torn between her consciousness of America's hypocrisy and shame over her ``un-American'' father and a mother who is a disastrous failure as a homemaker. She tries to bury her conflict by dating Dan, a (Jewish) West Point cadet. Belfrage (Living in War, 1987) writes from the perspective of her teenage self, which fuels the story with the energy and righteous anger of adolescence—but also with its self-absorbed one-sidedness. Her mother, for instance, gets little credit for supporting two children and maintaining a career against overwhelming odds. Only the epilogue, which revisits her parents and Dan decades later, exhibits the emotional density that comes with age. Belfrage is at her best when highlighting the daily travesties that red-baiting created: teachers grading her based on their political sympathies or fears; the government's unavailing attempt to get Molly Belfrage to testify against her ex- husband and eventual decision to deport them both. A spirited but myopic account of an adolescence that was both anomalous and all too American.
Pub Date: June 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-019000-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1994
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
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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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
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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