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YESTERDAY'S TRAIN

Name: YESTERDAY'S TRAIN
Author: Terry Pindell
ISBN: 0-8050-3791-8

A RAIL ODYSSEY THROUGH MEXICAN HISTORY

by Terry Pindell & Lourdes Ramírez Mallis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1997

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An unsatisfying rail-and-plane tour of our southern neighbor, ``a nation besieged by its history.'' Pindell (A Good Place to Live, 1995, etc.) has made a minor specialty of traveling across whole nations—previously, the US and Canada—by train and reporting what he has found along the way. He has done well in English-speaking venues, but his account of his sojourn in Mexico will disappoint anyone who knows the country. Pindell announces but doesn't quite work out some idÇes fixes—for example, that Mexico is difficult to understand because it is grounded in ``ancient pre-Hispanic spirituality'' and that in Mexico ``nothing is what it seems on the surface.'' Evidently lacking Spanish (and despite his native Latin collaborator, Ram°rez Mallis, of Keene State College), Pindell concentrates on just those surface appearances, and, from Merida to Hermosillo, he interweaves an impressionistic account of fruit markets and taco stands with the kinds of historical information that one would find in an encyclopedia. That information is too often half-absorbed, and half-understood; for instance, Pindell offers a staggeringly simplistic interpretation of why the US was able to conquer the nation so quickly in the war of 1846, and he fails to grasp the import of the latter-day Zapatista uprising in the southern state of Chiapas. While trying to be a sympathetic traveler, Pindell often condescends to those he is studying; he is especially bad in dealing with Mexico's Indian population, who emerge in his account as innocent people who are universally reluctant to speak with strangers. (In fact, if you have even a smattering of Spanish, you'll find it not so hard to strike up a conversation with them.) Mexico may indeed be burdened by its history, as Pindell asserts. But what nation is not? His book fails to illuminate that history or to cast any new light on Mexico's present troubles.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1997

ISBN: 0-8050-3791-8

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
A GOOD PLACE TO LIVE
by Terry Pindell

- BOOK REVIEW
LAST TRAIN TO TORONTO
by Terry Pindell

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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.