More essays—clever, observant, sidelong—chronicling the quotidian from Pickering (Trespassing, 1994, etc.). ``I root about in the good muck of daily life,'' confesses Pickering (Literature/Univ. of Connecticut), foraging in wood and field and coffee shop ``in hopes of harvesting a sense of season.'' He's a down-home essayist, opting for celebrating skunk cabbage over lady's slipper, mosquitoes over scarlet tanagers. Though he makes much of his homespunness, what you'll find here are well-mulled, polished little ``nostrums for the mind.'' Pickering is a student of landscape and the natural world (``Knowing place is more important than knowing self''), and also of the everyday comings and goings of our species. There is no telling where he will wander off to in these pieces, ranging—all in the compass of a few pages—from reflections on backache to a celebration of forestry supply catalogs to the tale of a man drunk on eggnog getting run over by a late-night UPS delivery van. Then, having finally drawn a breath, he'll launch into a consideration of Alice in Wonderland, followed by musings on the formation of individual identity. If there's wisdom here, it's of the oblique variety (``Profound truths are beyond me,'' he declares) and it must be winnowed from the tumult of his thought processes, leaping from a consideration of colors in spring one moment to his son's soccer game in the next. The nonfictional proceedings are peppered by a cast of fictional charcters from Carthage, Tennessee—a rustic, word-dazzled bunch, schooled in the art of bombast. The prize of this harvest is in the sheer pleasure Pickering takes in life. His writing is not only a delight, it's also inviting: Flip open to any page and enter the flow.
Pub Date: March 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-8130-1482-4
Page Count: 229
Publisher: Univ. Press of Florida
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1997
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
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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