Raunchy and unabashedly unapologetic, this is useful, take-no-prisoners humor.
Raw and ribald advice for growing up.
Curiously, Benincasa’s (Agorafabulous!: Dispatches from My Bedroom, 2012, etc.) 52-essay sampler of empirically based life lessons begins with a disclaimer touting her unworthiness as an advice giver. But what sets the latest collection from this comic apart from the rest of the burgeoning Everywoman’s self-help library is the soundness of the advice given. Amid some hilarious descriptors and a proclivity for unleashing expletives that makes Amy Schumer’s potty mouth seem reserved, Benincasa provides solid tips for relationships, health, wellness, and employment, many of which will be helpful for millennials feeling the crunch of keeping pace with modern living. Where a physician might remind one of the importance of prioritizing sleep, the author promotes the idea with all the subtlety of a drill sergeant: “Burning the midnight oil is fun until you burn right the fuck out.” Encouraging readers to embrace their individuality, no matter how embarrassing or nerdy, Benincasa offers courage on multiple fronts: “Consider the thing you really want to do that you have not yet done because you are afraid you would suck at it. Now go do it anyway.” The author draws on her experience with anxiety and depression, offering a refreshingly frank look at the difficulties of coping with mental illness and its remedies; at one point, she dubs a panic attack “the exact inverse of an orgasm.” Readers would be hard-pressed to mistake sex for intimacy after encountering her admonishment that, contrary to popular practice, “a vagina is not a time machine”: “sex cannot take you back in time to a simpler era.” Throughout the collection, Benincasa’s graphic yet pithy reflections cater to the 140-character attention spans of the Twitter-sphere while effectively instilling much street-smart wisdom.
Raunchy and unabashedly unapologetic, this is useful, take-no-prisoners humor.Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-236981-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2016
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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