Good Women, Bad Guys would be more like it for this latest from best-selling author Hite (Women and Love, 1987, etc.), here writing with Colleran, her assistant. Far from being the ``revolutionary'' guide to choosing a good mate and establishing an egalitarian 90's relationship that the authors promise, it's a whiny, biased kvetch against the male sex in general, written in grade-B women's-mag style. By a conservative estimate, 50-60% of this book consists of excerpts from questionnaires Hite distributed to an unspecified number of women (she never explains the methodology she used to reach such eyebrow-raising conclusions as, ``Most single women over sixty-five like their lives very much''). Hite and Colleran's contributions are limited to pep talks (if you take inventory of your relationship and find it more rewarding than degrading, ``Enjoy!'' they exhort: ``We give you total permission. In fact, we insist!'') and superficial analyses in which ponderous terms like ``emotional violence'' are hefted about but never precisely defined. A man's glancing at a sporting event on TV while his woman is pressing for a discussion of feelings seems to rank right up there with outright mockery and revilement, on the E.V. scale. Overall, men are represented as scapegoats in every intimate failure: ``In the beginning, [a relationship] usually is happy, but as the stereotypes...gradually creep in and the woman tries to fight against them, the situation starts to deteriorate.'' The intelligent woman reader must ask, ``Aren't we beyond all this?'' (Male readers are advised to avoid this book, lest the urge to drop-kick it off a roof be taken as further evidence of their emotional violence.)
Pub Date: June 14, 1991
ISBN: 0-88184-686-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
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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