Stale loaf from a famous French bakery. (16 pp. b&w photographs, not seen)
A familiar, cursory look at Napoleon’s accomplishments and failures: martial, civil, and cultural.
The British author of several painters’ biographies, Wilson-Smith has written about Bonaparte before from that point of view (Napoleon and His Artists, not reviewed). Here, he divides his brief work into two principal sections. The first summarizes Napoleon’s rise to power, his stunning series of military victories, the growth and decline of the French empire, Waterloo, Elba, St. Helena, and death. (The author takes no position on the question of murder by poison.) For those who have read elsewhere of Napoleon or paid attention in Western Civ, there is not much new save an occasional gripping detail—e.g., the forces of Wellington and Napoleon camped only about 5,000 yards apart the night before the Big One. Too often, Wilson-Smith reaches into his analogy kit and comes up with the unremarkable: “The last and most terrible person to try to play a Napoleonic role in Europe was Adolf Hitler.” The second half points out Bonaparte’s other well-known achievements: stimulating scholarly interest in Egypt (the author cracks wise, noting that Napoleon “looked ridiculous” in a kaftan and turban), establishing and perhaps even perfecting the French bureaucracy, creating and formalizing the Code Napoléon, doing good deeds in public finance and education, building roads, and supporting some artists and writers. Once again, an occasional detail with a keen edge or a crisp sentence animates the text: Wilson-Smith notes that the French killed some 15,000 wolves between 1805–15 to protect their livestock and observes that Bonaparte “disliked clever women and suspected that those who could look after themselves were not truly feminine.” He ends by expressing a more-than-grudging admiration for the general responsible for some five million deaths and unimaginable destruction. Of genuine interest are Wilson-Smith’s analyses of the various 19th-century paintings of the Emperor.
Stale loaf from a famous French bakery. (16 pp. b&w photographs, not seen)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-7867-1089-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2002
One of the great pitchers in baseball history (and one of the most outspoken and disagreeable), Gibson recalls his storied career with the capable help of Wheeler (I Had a Hammer, not reviewed) and shows he's not done being ``difficult.'' A ferocious competitor who made his living pitching high and tight, Gibson had a reputation throughout his 17 years with the St. Louis Cardinals for being just as uncompromising and angry off the field, especially concerning racial matters. Gibson was raised in an Omaha, Nebr., housing project, where his older brother was hero, mentor, and coach. After college, Gibson, who claims that he was better at basketball than baseball, signed a contract with both the Cardinals and the Harlem Globetrotters, playing one year for the latter. He calls his first professional baseball manager, Johnny Keane, ``the closest thing to a saint that I came across in baseball.'' When Keane replaced Solly Hemus (whom Gibson despised) in 1961, it turned the Cardinals', and Gibson's, fortunes around. Known for his extraordinary performances in the postseason, Gibson had a World Series record of 7-2, with a 1.89 ERA and an incredible 92 strikeouts over 81 innings. He won 20 games in five different seasons and in 1968 posted a 1.12 ERA in 305 innings. Gibson offers some fun and insightful recollections of big games, friends, and teammates such as Tim McCarver, Joe Torre, and Bob Uecker, and legendary matchups with Juan Marichal (``the best pitcher of my generation''), Sandy Koufax, and Don Drysdale. Despite his Hall of Fame credentials, Gibson claims he's been ostracized from the game and hasn't held a baseball job since 1984. Though he grouses a lot about being slighted by major league baseball and rehashes all-too-familiar racial difficulties, it is refreshing to get the fiery Gibson's take on the grand old game. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) (First printing of 75,000; $75,000 ad/promo; author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-670-84794-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
paper 0-8225-9684-9 Late bloomers will take heart in this tale of a classic underachiever who went on to make popular, record-breaking films. Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars series and other movies, just barely graduated from high school. As a youth, he dreamed of becoming a race car driver, but after being badly injured in a collision he began “filming cars instead of racing them.” Following a stint at the University of South California’s film school, Lucas, in his various capacities as writer, producer and director, piled up the series of successes for which he is known, and changed “the film industry by uniting entertainment, business and technology” in the process. The section on how Lucas got the ideas for Star Wars, and its subsequent incarnations—e.g., the first two drafts never mentioned “the Force,”—will fascinate fans and casual movie-goers alike. White is admiring, characterizing Lucas variously and vaguely as “complicated,” “intriguing,” “intelligent,” “humble,” and “intensely private.” That Lucas is driven is clear, but readers will close the book—which ends before the opening of The Phantom Menace in the spring of 1999—knowing more about his career than his soul. (photos, notes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 12-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 2, 1999
ISBN: 0-8225-4975-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Lerner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
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