An amusing diversion, good for your next long flight.
Cahill (Pass the Butterworms, 1997, etc.), the founding editor of Outside magazine, has culled these diverse and diverting pieces from books by Dave Barry, Bill Bryson, J.P. Donleavy, Mark Salzman, David Sedaris, and other travel-writers and editors. Most are short—five or six pages—but there is one considerably longer one by Randy White. With most of the stories set in other countries, cross-cultural mishaps abound (e.g., getting one’s hair cut in Turkey or having one’s dental work done in Cameroon). Animals (a baboon in the bedroom in Zimbabwe, a ferret in the trousers in Scotland, and a wayward jumping frog on Amtrak) figure in several tales, and dealing with human vomit, urine, and feces provides the humor in three others. Clearly, not all are equally charming or will appeal to the same sense of humor. Cover-to-cover reading at one sitting is easily accomplished but not recommended lest the idiosyncratic humor of individual pieces be blurred. Quirky little paragraph-long pieces separate the titled anecdotes, even briefer items appear in boxed inserts within them, and (apparently) cartoons (not seen) will be added.
An amusing diversion, good for your next long flight.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-885211-55-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Travelers’ Tales
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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