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STREETS AND ALLEYS

Name: STREETS AND ALLEYS
Author: Syd Lieberman
ISBN: 0-87483-424-4

STORIES WITH A CHICAGO ACCENT

by Syd Lieberman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1995

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A schoolteacher and storyteller tells his own story with scant success. Lieberman tries in these 18 episodes to evoke his childhood and youth in 1950s Chicago, his Harvard College experience, his sexual awakening, married life, teaching, parenthood, and aging. What emerges instead are snippets of a fairly full life with little emotional punch. His childhood is reduced to a list of street games; Harvard becomes generic freshman insecurity followed by a disastrous midterm period; love is at first sight, of course; teaching is a pale imitation of Bel Kaufman's Up the Down Staircase. These reminiscences are punctuated with enigmatic episodes (as when his grandfather tells him that ``the main important thing'' is to ``put apples in your refrigerator'') and tired epiphanies (``Twisting like we did last summer. . . . Twisting time is here''). In fact, this book would be merely a collection of clichÇs were it not for some aspects of the author's life that are anything but typical: for example, his car salesman father's obsessive gambling and criminal past, which Lieberman attempts to draw as colorful, but which is actually an ugly and underexplored factor in his life. His own adulthood is more standardmarried to his childhood sweetheart, two kids, a house. He describes going bald, his deteriorating body, his growing gut. He goes to aerobics classes and to synagogue. There are a few affecting moments, as when he discusses his elderly mother's zest for life, a zest he cannot seem to muster himself. And there is also some humor: When he and his girlfriend are caught naked in bed by his mother, the woman doesn't bat an eye but instinctively offers them a tuna sandwich. But the good moments are far between, hardly worth slogging through the rest for.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-87483-424-4

Page Count: 192

Publisher: August House

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.