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CONFIDING

Name: CONFIDING
Author: Susan Baur
ISBN: 0-06-018238-5

A PSYCHOTHERAPIST AND HER PATIENTS SEARCH FOR STORIES TO LIVE BY

by Susan Baur ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 1994

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A telling look into the pained hearts and confused minds of the mentally ill, by the author of The Dinosaur Man (1991). Baur operates in the belief that psychotherapy is a way of helping patients learn to construct better stories about their lives—more complete, coherent, and convincing stories that, in reinterpreting their pasts, also open up new paths for the future. This isn't a new theory, but she illuminates it by relating her attempts (not always successful) to do therapy with severely ill patients: the delusional, the hostile, the hopeless. Not only does Baur try to help her patients become better storytellers, but she, in her role as therapist, also exemplifies the art of listening at its best, finding the sense underneath seemingly incoherent ramblings. Her patients include suicidal Charlie Isabella, who tantalizes her with his gentle but rare smile, and Angie Savalonis, a wild woman who years earlier had lost her boyfriend in a motorcycle accident. But two-thirds of the way through her book, Baur veers off into a polemic against current modes of treatment— or mistreatment—of the mentally ill by therapists who impose their own stories on patients, labeling them ``aggressive,'' ``schizophrenic,'' and the like, instead of sounding out the source of their individual pain. Although she raises valid, even disturbing, issues, Baur loses her readers when she categorizes such patients as ``eccentrics'' rebelling against society's strictures. In the end it is the patients themselves who command our attention, for the almost poetic, and sometimes remarkably lucid, ways they have of describing their own torment. Frenetic T.M. bemoans the ``black crab nebula death'' that awaits him; institutionalized Rosina Venuto writes, ``I pray, but God is too smart to hang around this place;'' Lloyd Bartlett, semi-aware that his world is peopled with fantasy characters, says, ``It is extremely disconcerting to doubt the contents of your own mind.'' Better when practicing than when preaching, Baur is insightful, compassionate, and wise.

Pub Date: June 2, 1994

ISBN: 0-06-018238-5

Page Count: 320

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE INTIMATE HOUR
by Susan Baur

- BOOK REVIEW
THE DINOSAUR MAN
by Susan Baur

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NUTCRACKER

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

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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

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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

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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.