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SPOTTED DICK, S'IL VOUS PLAIT

Name: SPOTTED DICK, S'IL VOUS PLAIT
Author: Tom Higgins
ISBN: 1-56947-032-4

AN ENGLISH RESTAURANT IN FRANCE

by Tom Higgins ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 11, 1995

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A light, likeable look at a British couple's successful attempt to establish an English restaurant in Lyons. After a dinner-party guest compliments the author and his wife on their tasty meat loaf in pastry, the two are inspired to follow their hearts, chuck their jobs (as translator and doctor, respectively), and open a restaurant. They move to France and assume the unenviable task of making English cuisine (considered by many to be an oxymoron) palatable to perhaps the country's most discriminating palates—those of the Lyonnais. Adopting the good- natured attitude and rueful wit of a man whose idea is largely regarded as a bad joke, Higgins encounters stubborn bank officials, skeptical neighbors, endless bureaucracy, great expense, and even rats. His wife and principal chef, Sue, speaks little French, and they have a one-year-old child, an out-of-the-way location, and no idea what the menu will feature less than a week before their grand opening. But within three short months, Mr. Higgins (as the restaurant is named) is up and running. The oddity of the only English restaurant in a French ``gastocracy'' begins to lure crowds of curious diners. The English breakfasts on weekends are a smash, and their hillside location becomes increasingly popular as the neighborhood is yuppified. After eight years, Higgins concludes, ``So far, I seem to be relatively charmed''—and so is the reader, or at least pleasantly entertained, though once it's apparent the restaurant will thrive, the narrative is at times reduced to observations about the price of local produce, the occasional troublesome customer, and disagreeable neighbors. (By the way, one off the dozen recipes included does reveal that ``spotted dick'' is a traditional English pudding.) Overall, a whimsical and unlikely success story.

Pub Date: May 11, 1995

ISBN: 1-56947-032-4

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Soho

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

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

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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

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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

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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.