bookshelf

SARAJEVO DAILY

Name: SARAJEVO DAILY
Author: Tom Gjelten
ISBN: 0-06-019052-3

A CITY AND ITS NEWSPAPER UNDER SIEGE

by Tom Gjelten ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1995

bookshelf

An ambitious, partially rewarding attempt to recount the suffering and fortitude of Sarajevo, focusing on the work and workers of the daily newspaper Oslobodjenje. Gjelten, who has covered the war in the former Yugoslavia since 1991 for National Public Radio, writes with far less personal involvement and passion than David Rieff (see Slaughterhouse, p. 1548). But he has quite a subject. Oslobodjenje (Liberation) was one of Sarajevo's best examples of interethnic harmony; resisting Communist strictures in the 1980s, it emerged as an independent pan-national voice in the 1990s. Despite shelling of its building, limited resources, and a staff suffering common privations, it kept publishing out of a bomb shelter, even using wrapping paper or textbook stock. Gjelten tries, a bit awkwardly, both to chronicle Sarajevo events over a two-year period and to follow individuals from the newspaper. Ljiljana Smajlov°c, a Serb, is so distressed by Serb atrocities that she escapes to Brussels. Two staffers on their way to the office are dragged by local underworld figures turned militiamen to dig front-line trenches. The newspaper, like other local institutions, must maintain an edgy relationship with UN Protection Force troops: dependent on favors for newsprint and fuel, yet critical of the force's lack of protection. And the war, weakening the communal bonds of the city, takes its toll on Oslobodjenje's ideals: News editor Zlatko Dizdarev°c confronts editor Kemal Kurspah°c over the paper's unquestioning coverage of the Bosnian government as the war proceeds. In one story, a well- known Sarajevo actor, rendered legless after a mortar blast, asserts that he has been defeated, in that ``there is hatred in me now.'' Trying unsuccessfully to reconcile an uneasy mixture of writing about the war as a whole and about the life of Oslobodjenje in particular, Gjelten strays from reportorial rigor into a general lament for a ravaged land and people. (15 photos, 2 maps, not seen)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-06-019052-3

Page Count: 288

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
A NATION OF NATIONS
by Tom Gjelten

- BOOK REVIEW
BACARDI AND THE LONG FIGHT FOR CUBA
by Tom Gjelten

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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.