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SURVIVING A WRITER'S LIFE

Name: SURVIVING A WRITER'S LIFE
Author: Suzanne Lipsett
ISBN: 0-06-250657-9

by Suzanne Lipsett ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1994

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Lipsett may once have been accused (in these pages) of using tabloid events to feed her fiction (Remember Me, 1991, Out of Danger, 1987, etc.), but, as this remarkable memoir makes clear, her writing springs full-blown from her own life—a life rich, heartbreaking, and real enough to reduce any tabloid story to mush. After her mother died in childbirth, four-year-old Lipsett's father sought to shelter his daughter by never displaying grief and never permitting any discussion of his dead wife. Lipsett grew up ``rudderless'' with no memory of her mother. When her father remarried and started a new family, she found herself a permanent outsider, an experience apparently still wounding enough that she can barely touch on the details here. She went on to endure still more, including a horrifying rape when she was in her twenties and two bouts of breast cancer in her forties. The weight of this many crises could sink any fictional plot; what's striking here is that, of all Lipsett's books, this one—her own story—seems the least steeped in sorrow. It is, above all else, a book about writing and what Lipsett recounts with courage, grace and no shortage of humor is what it means to live a writer's life, despite (or, perhaps, because of) all the odds. Sure to appeal to writers and wannabe's, but compelling reading for any audience.

Pub Date: March 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-06-250657-9

Page Count: 224

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
AFTER DEATH
by Sukie Miller with Suzanne Lipsett

- BOOK REVIEW
REMEMBER ME
by Suzanne Lipsett

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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.