Offers rueful proof that successfully joining an authentic Middle Eastern culture requires more than writing checks and...
An ambitious Australian couple renovates a crumbling Moroccan house.
Tired of what they saw as the soulless homogeneity of their native Brisbane, Australian newspaper editor Clarke and her husband Sandy became entranced by the exotic prospect of securing a spacious home with a garden in Fez. Early in their spiritual search for domestic nirvana, they encountered the ominous Arabic term inshallah, “God willing,” the true implications of which manifested themselves only later. Everything in Morocco, the couple discovered, proceeded at a tortoise-like pace, as though everyone was waiting for the hand of God to intervene in even the smallest transaction. In a city barely grazed by Western-style development—many Fez residents lived without running water—Clarke and her husband pursued the uphill task of hiring dependable, efficient local contractors to rebuild the long-neglected ancient abode they purchased. Professional obligations in Australia led them to set a time limit of five months on the process, a deadline that adds a mild “race against time” element to a narrative unsurprisingly short on drama—though the microscopic detailing of the home-rebuilding process will undoubtedly appeal to participants in the current renovation craze. The Australians’ demanding Western conception of efficient work standards rubbed against the ingrained deliberateness of Moroccan contractors and laborers, some of them decidedly shifty. The constant haggling over material costs and workers’ hourly pay occasionally brought the normally patient author to the brink of scrapping the whole project in frustration. Continent-hopping Clarke had neighborly intentions, but she and her husband remained slightly aloof from a hyper-religious Muslim society still skeptical of encroaching westernization. Nonetheless, she offers some incidental but valuable cultural insights into Morocco’s social history and post-millennial life.
Offers rueful proof that successfully joining an authentic Middle Eastern culture requires more than writing checks and giving orders.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4165-7893-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2008
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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