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LET IT BE

Name: LET IT BE
Author: Travis Bolourian
ISBN: 978-0-692-60701-5

A TRUE LIFE STORY

by Travis Bolourian ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 14, 2016

An engrossing tale of an Iranian entrepreneur’s hardships and misadventures as he made his way to America.

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A debut memoir recounts the struggles of an immigrant to the United States from Iran.

In 1986, at the age of 22, Bolourian ran his own boutique in Mashhad, one of the biggest cities in Iran. A self-styled, middle-class playboy, he listened to underground music and practiced martial arts in his spare time. Iran was deeply engaged in a long and tortuous war with Iraq. Bolourian decided, due to the privations and difficulties brought on by the conflict, that he would escape to Turkey. So began the many travails shared in this slim book. At one point, the author encountered a family “friend” while walking back to his hotel in Turkey, who turned out to want revenge on Bolourian for some slight done to him by a family member. “It was about midnight,” the author writes. “I was depressed and still wide awake when suddenly someone knocked on the door.” Thinking his girlfriend, Melody, was outside, the author was shocked to see it was the police, who then dragged him off to jail. Bolourian does a good job of re-creating the sense of desperation, claustrophobia, and filth of the dark underworld in which he found himself imprisoned. While his sentences often omit definite or indefinite articles, a typical error of a non-native English writer/speaker, the volume recounts with cleareyed passion the author’s continual suffering as he was returned to Iran. Revolutionary Guards confined him to an Iranian prison and he was conscripted to fight for his country against the Iraqis. After all his jail time, serving in the Iranian military seemed like a piece of cake to Bolourian. While the author shares little introspection on the meaning of his torturous journey, he reveals his genuine gratitude when at long last he comes to live in the United States. This, unfortunately, is a timely story, as scores of refugees have had to flee war and devastating social conditions to seek havens—only to find all too little to comfort them in their adversity and distress.

An engrossing tale of an Iranian entrepreneur’s hardships and misadventures as he made his way to America.

Pub Date: June 14, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-692-60701-5

Page Count: 100

Publisher: Broxton

Review Posted Online: July 13, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

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.