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TRESPASSING

From Pickering—English professor (Univ. of Connecticut) and reluctant inspiration for the movie Dead Poets Society—more essays that distill from life's accumulated clutter the small telling details that amuse, illuminate, and often lyrically celebrate. Like the long walks he takes in search of life forced ``under a microscope,'' Pickering's essays not only explore themes in a leisurely way but digress: He makes pithy comments on family and colleagues, relates old Southern jokes, and records the summer appearance of a milkweed plant or the amount of native raspberries recently picked. In the title essay, Pickering happily ignores a gate marked State Property—No Trespassing and goes on to confess that for years he has trespassed, ``for a closed gate is an open invitation to explore. Writers, of course, forever trespass, wandering beyond the margins of good behavior into off-limits and then converting private property into public life.'' A free- spirited trespasser, he eavesdrops on conversations in his local coffee shop and roams the fields behind his Connecticut neighbors. In ``Reading Martin Chuzzlewit'' he admits that a rare visit to a mall makes him ``imagine a hidden life, an hour tangled with ribbons and sweet red surprises'' with the women he sees there. Tempted by an invitation to interview for a college presidency in his native Tennessee, he acknowledges that although a longtime critic of college athletics, he was prepared to consider football ``too trivial to become a matter of principle and prevent me from accepting'' such a position (``Sweet Auburn''); and while closing up his father's apartment, he discovers that ``selling is infectious, raising the fervor of the seller, more than that of the buyer'' (``A Different Seller''). The jokes are often outrageously corny, the whimsy strained, but they're all part of the delight Pickering so palpably creates in this endearing celebration of the ordinary, the profound, and, most of all, the absurd.

Pub Date: May 20, 1994

ISBN: 0-87451-640-4

Page Count: 264

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1994

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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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