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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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