bookshelf

KEITH

Name: KEITH
Author: Stanley Booth
ISBN: 0-312-11841-4

STANDING IN THE SHADOWS

by Stanley Booth ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 28, 1995

bookshelf

A prose meditation on Rolling Stone Keith Richards by a man who entered the Stones' inner sanctum as a journalist in the late '60s and subsequently became the guitarist's friend and confidante. Booth (The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones, 1985) may be too close to his subject to present a totally objective view, but for the most part he manages to keep his story free from puffery. As he (re)traces the Stones' more-than-30-year career, Booth quotes Richards on everything from music and drug addiction to fatherhood and fame. Stones fans will be familiar with much of the historical material here (the big '67 drug bust, crowd ugliness and a killing at Altamont, Keith's narrow escape from a lengthy Canadian prison sentence in the late '70s), but Booth's breezy style and dry wit often put a fresh spin on things, as when he opts not to detail the hedonism of the Stones' 1972 American tour, drolly noting, ``Once you've seen sufficient fettucine on flocked velvet, hot urine pooling on deep carpets, and tidal waves of spewing sex organs, they seem to run together. So to speak.'' But while he is right to avoid a blow-by-blow (so to speak) description of a Stones orgy, Booth gives overly short shrift to the subject of drugs. Granted, he does a good job of chronicling Richards's well-documented romance with heroin, but he fails to adequately answer the question of when and how the guitarist—certainly rock's most notorious junkie—finally overcame his addiction. Since Booth is a self- admitted former heroin user whose own misadventures with the drug roughly parallel those of Richards, such an omission is both puzzling and disappointing. Still, a welcome addition to the growing library of Stones- related tomes. (10 pages b&w photos, not seen)

Pub Date: March 28, 1995

ISBN: 0-312-11841-4

Page Count: 224

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
RED HOT AND BLUE
by Stanley Booth

- BOOK REVIEW
RYTHM OIL
by Stanley Booth

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

bookshelf

TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

bookshelf

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.