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ANTHEM

AN AMERICAN ROAD STORY

The record of a four-month-long trip around America with a videocamera in 1995, in search of some defining ideas of American purpose and identity, by two young women who make very pleasant company. The virtue of the narrative (a feature-length documentary is also being released) is that Gabel and Hahn's winning sincerity gained them entry to a number of influential figures, from George Stephanopoulos to George McGovern, and from Robert Redford to Hunter S. Thompson, and their wide-eyed fascination with what they found clearly touched a number of their subjects. Some of their interviews (with the rap artist Chuck D and the environmental activist Wes Jackson, for instance) did provoke some frank answers. The drawback is that their questions tend to be somewhat simplistic, and their reactions to their surroundings are uninformed by much sense of history, focusing on matters (the extraordinary variety of American landscapes, life on the road) that may be new to them but that have been thoroughly covered by many before them. A work of modest but real charm. (First printing of 75,000)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1997

ISBN: 0-380-97419-3

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1997

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THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...

Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").

Pub Date: May 15, 1972

ISBN: 0205632645

Page Count: 105

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972

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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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