Neither Brian Wilson nor the rest of the Beach Boys ever come alive in this tedious tale of surfboards, teenyboppers, and cookie-cutter surf music. White (Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley, 1983), editor-in- chief of Billboard Magazine, is long on detail and short on story as he traces the minutiae of Brian Wilson, the surf band he helped found, several generations of his family, and the Southern California beach culture. After a teaser showing Wilson leaving a high school sweetheart for a stint on the road, White returns to the Wilson family's days in the small town of Hutchinson, Kans., beginning in 1914. Only after long chapters on Brian's grandfather's move to California in 1921 and his father Murry's career as a disabled defense worker and small-business owner do the musical brothers, Brian, Carl, and Dennis, appear. Over a third of the pages have passed before the band appears as an emerging recording phenomenon. From there, the story is so tangled up in digressive background, reminders of concurrent events (such as the Watts riots and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.), and specified accounts of the day-to-day operations of the Boys and rivals like Phil Spector and Jan and Dean that no underpinning narrative can emerge to propel the book. As the man at the center of the story, Brian Wilson only threatens to come across as a musical genius constrained by being typecast as a lollipop songwriter. The post-1960s material, highlighting Wilson's decline into self-indulgence and addiction and his reemergence under the care of a quackish 24-hour-a-day psychologist, does little to show the demonic nightmares of superstardom. No one will be able to fault White on the mountains of research behind the book. If only he hadn't felt compelled to include so much of it. (32 pages photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-8050-2266-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1994
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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