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A LITTLE FLING

AND OTHER ESSAYS

Essayist Pickering’s (Deprived of Happiness, 1998, etc.) world is willfully circumscribed, mostly his family and friends (real and unreal) and the immediate landscape and what came in that day’s mail, but he knows just how to coax from the ordinary the kind of sustained nourishment that imbues life with significance. Pickering tenders here not so much 15 essays, but 15 thought processes, 15 chances to join a nimble, unbridled, and ever-suspicious mind at work. A piece may start with him mulling over the personality of the months—November, say, lending itself to contemplation and fear—which may spark a story about religious bookstores, which bows to an encounter with an old college yearbook, which is abandoned when an inchworm eating a lichen catches his attention. These oddments, notions, fancies, and observations trip on and on in graceful, tenuous association, seeming trifles that circle and then dance as Pickering celebrates the mundane, gives it credit, and reaps its abiding rewards: the nighthawk quartering a field, a slow drive with his daughter and her friends to a soccer match, a droughty season in Nova Scotia yielding a bog dry enough to explore. He’ll pursue a solemnity, pull at a gray thread until it unravels, as when he reads the gravestones of children and wonders what could have happened. But mostly he looks for the bright side, which is often provided by the good (fictional) citizens of Carthage Tenn., busy idlers all, who drop little pearls like “A dead cat will do a respectable job of keeping the rodents down.” Then there are the priceless comments of his vinegary pal Josh, who turns his flame thrower on any hint of piety and pomposity and who either is fictional or else ought to be receiving a cut of Pickering’s scant royalties: “In 1997 royalties from ten books brought me $100.25, or .000401 of what my friends assume I make.” Like good sipping whiskey, each administration of Pickering triggers a small, worthy revelation.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999

ISBN: 1-57233-062-7

Page Count: 160

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999

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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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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

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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