Engrossing and skillful account of the Second World War's final month. Ranging from global strategy to unit actions, from high politics to scientific calculation, Weintraub (Arts and Humanities/Penn State Univ.; Long Day's Journey Into War: December 7, 1941, 1991, etc.) is most satisfying where recent controversies have been most intense. Using the wealth of material that has recently become available, he lays out the uncertainties and fears surrounding the US decision to use atomic bombs on Japan. America had one uranium bomb, never tested. One plutonium bomb could be made immediately but its reliability was unknown; the first and only other device had been fixed in a stationary tower and ignited electrically. In front of the US if it did not use these weapons lay the largest amphibious operation in history, involving 800,000 men, of which the American leadership expected the first echelon to be wiped out. Even after bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even with Japan totally beaten, on the brink of famine, and almost unable to muster any defense, Weintraub argues that the decision to surrender was a very close thing. ``Not a single ranking general or admiral in the military hierarchy that ruled Japan would have subscribed to anything resembling capitulation,'' he notes. Young officers tried to frustrate the emperor's decision, and Hirohito's cabinet rejected capitulation. American readers of the Japanese diplomatic code, which had been broken, found nothing in post-Hiroshima communications to confirm that Japan was interested in giving up the war. Weintraub is not sentimental in his judgments, nor does he whitewash the Japanese, whose treatment of prisoners of war was horrific and included handing them over to universities for vivisection. (For another look at this period, see Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar, Code-Name Downfall, p. 597.) A fine book by a historian who has mastered his sources and interweaves his themes with a sure sense of their significance and drama. (16 pages b&w photos, 3 maps) (Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection)
Pub Date: July 10, 1995
ISBN: 0-525-93687-4
Page Count: 704
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995
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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