From oral historian Parker (Bird, Kansas, 1989, etc.), riveting interviews that speak to the heart of the ``Troubles'' in Belfast, where even to be neither Protestant nor Catholic is not sufficient: ``what matters is where did you begin?'' Parker learned that everything in Belfast, from your choice of camera shop to which hotel you stay in, is affected by religious affiliation. This ``need for knowledge of someone's present faith or antecedents isn't for the purpose of expressing empathy or antagonism, but purely so that...once you know whether you share common background, or you do not, you can avoid saying the wrong thing, or wrong word, to unwittingly cause offence.'' Having noted these parameters, Parker talks to a range of Belfast citizenry: Catholic and Protestant; Republican and Loyalist; IRA and RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary); clergy and laypeople; and those who concentrate on nonsectarian issues like women's rights or education. One of the most impressive is the principal of the groundbreaking Lagan Integrated College, who is trying to encourage compromise rather than the ``We must win, they must lose attitudes.'' Nearly all, whether a sixteen year-old delinquent declaring ``I'm not one for all this religious business....I'm just your ordinary thief just taking things that come my way,'' or an anguished father whose beloved daughter was killed at a roadblock by British soldiers and who believes ``unification's got to be done democratically, never through bloodshed,'' are troubled by the current situation. The responses also suggest why change will not be easy: there's the great weight of history; enormous economic problems remain; and both religious hierarchies refuse to seek common ground. A book that, with talk of peace in the time, could hardly be more timely. But it is also a sobering reminder of just how perilous and difficult the peace process will be.
Pub Date: March 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8050-3053-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 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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