An intriguing, if oddly drifting, travel/marital drama.
The author recounts her 1975 sail across the Indian Ocean, a turning point in her strange marriage, in this second installment of her memoir series.
In 1975, Joyce was in California, ready to write about how she and her husband, Charles, had just been eyewitnesses to the Cyprus coup/war. Then they received a letter from Dylan, a Cyprus acquaintance. Dylan, of British descent, and Mia, his Israeli girlfriend, were picking up a yacht for a Swedish millionaire in Taiwan and wondered whether their American friends would like to crew part of the way, from Sri Lanka to the Seychelles. To Joyce’s surprise, Charles, enigmatic about his money and career, jumped at the offer. Joyce soon realized that the situation was quite odd. The other couple were often tense, yet also displayed a passion that Joyce (who had a history of miscarriages) and hashish-smoking Charles lacked. The group set sail without charts and had many perilous moments during an approximately monthlong voyage in monsoon season. Joyce read books during the voyage and mused upon topics including reincarnation. Mia hinted that Charles was a CIA agent, which Joyce already suspected. The yacht eventually blew off course to Diego Garcia, a remote British/American military outpost. Charles and Dylan fell out about this time, and Joyce and Charles ended their journey soon after in the Seychelles. Back in the United States, Joyce had visions of Charles with other women, leading to her leaving the marriage. Joyce (The Lullaby Illusion, 2013) apparently had some amazing experiences, with this latest narrative being the second installment of her world adventures. While her situation regarding Charles (who she further indicates was a CIA operative in an epilogue) has dramatic potential, it is surprisingly underdeveloped. Joyce spends too much time on banal descriptions of meals and sightseeing, particularly during the couple’s stopover in India, and too little on what Charles was up to. The account also fails to clarify the activities of Mia’s brother, who was also onboard. While Joyce offers some lovely moments, such as when dolphins swim up to the yacht, her New-Age-type musings make her seem dreamy, indeed rather clueless, given her sinking marriage.
An intriguing, if oddly drifting, travel/marital drama.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-943158-90-4
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Peel Productions
Review Posted Online: March 25, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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