A genuine page-turner: the weak-willed will lose sleep.
Captivating compilation of interviews with people in the arts, all first broadcast on Fresh Air.
Gross has been hosting her daily, hour-long NPR interview show for 30 years, and in that time countless cultural icons have submitted to her polite but relentless questioning. Here, she collects interviews done since the show went national in 1987. Explaining the focus on artists, writers, actors, and sundry entertainers, the author contends that her many interviews with figures involved in politics or social issues can seem dated a few years after they air. The famously cagey Gross begins by revealing a good deal about her own life; existing fans should enjoy the inside look at how her show is produced and who the key players are, along with personal details. (She answers the lesbian question once and for all.) But the real delight is in the interviews themselves, uniformly fresh and so animated on the page that it’s hard to imagine they were better live. The range of subjects is vast: Gross connects with Johnny Cash and Grandmaster Flash, Dennis Hopper and Jodie Foster, Mario Puzo and Maurice Sendak, among many others. Almost all of them, while discussing their work process or latest project, come up with some remarkable observation, from the piquant to the extraordinary. John Updike’s comments on his Rabbit novels give piercing insight into life in suburbia in the 1950s, while author Ann Bannon describes how it felt to write lesbian fiction during the same period. George Clinton talks about the roots of his mighty funk empire, and Hal David reveals that he dreaded writing the song for the movie Alfie. For those who love a good fight, Gross includes her notorious interview with Gene Simmons.
A genuine page-turner: the weak-willed will lose sleep.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2004
ISBN: 1-4013-0010-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2004
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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