by Steve Trebing ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 22, 2016
Engaging coming-of-age stories that recall the fun of teenage friendships.
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Cars, cops, capers, and (beer) cans feature in this novelistic memoir set in the late 1980s.
In every gang of friends, each person takes on a specific role. Debut author Trebing was his group’s storyteller, often regaling them with anecdotes about growing up in North Babylon, New York, on Long Island. Later, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Beth Whitehouse told his family’s story when she wrote The Match (2010), about their quest to save their daughter from a rare disease. That book, and his own lifelong habit of journaling, inspired this memoir of his late teens, when he questioned what he wanted out of life. Trebing writes in the third person, occasionally moving among the perspectives of different people until a first-person epilogue. This unusual approach is disconcerting at first, but then the engaging story takes over. Trebing revisits four periods in his life: 1986, when he was 15 and built a fort with six friends; the following year, when he went on an ill-starred, epic, cross-island bike expedition; 1989, when he took part in a hectic scavenger hunt; and between 1989 and 1993, during his years at the State University of New York at Oswego, on the shores of Lake Ontario. Along the way, the author depicts a diverse group of amiable young men with a propensity for good-natured pranks. They loved cars and bicycles, building things, and goofing around. They liked their beer—sometimes a bit too much. They got into hair-raising scrapes but stuck together in adversity. Automobiles and police officers feature in almost every story—most memorably, Trebing’s retelling of a none-too-gentle arrest by Oswego cops who’d seen him kick a pay phone. The author has a feel for narrative tension, cleverly breaking up the slight stories to ensure there are always enticing cliffhangers that propel readers onward. He rotates among the four time frames to help keep that tension taut. The stories’ grammar is less assured, though, and the dialogue can sometimes feel overly formal and unrealistic. Nevertheless, once readers get caught up in these high-spirited tales, they’ll likely enjoy the ride.
Engaging coming-of-age stories that recall the fun of teenage friendships.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-78492-1
Page Count: 294
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
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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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
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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