A self-indulgent exercise that misses the mark as both a teaching tool and a memoir.
Remember how much you disliked music lessons when you were a little kid? Here’s your chance to revisit those magical times.
A veteran piano teacher, contributor to the New York Times and Fortune magazine and adjunct professor of music history at three East Coast universities, Tunstall loves the piano and gets no greater joy than imparting keyboard knowledge to her preteen and teenage private students. (Based on the book’s scant autobiographical sections, she doesn’t seem to have much of a life away from the keyboard.) She introduces us to more than a dozen of her young charges: Mark, who has trouble with minor keys; Christopher, who allegedly loves classical music; Max, who grew tired of classical and was reinvigorated by the Oscar Peterson Trio’s recording of “Summertime”; and so on. In this slim text, each child receives only slight attention. This is problematic, because the kids’ personalities and musical traits very quickly start to run together. Tunstall’s heart is in the right place. It’s evident she loves both her instrument and her students to a great degree, and she’s clearly a kind, giving individual. But her book is too simplistic for musical experts, who will find it covers overly familiar ground, and too heady for casual fans, who will be numbed by the technical material. Those looking for an engrossing memoir will be turned off by the jarring transitions between the autobiographical and the musical.
A self-indulgent exercise that misses the mark as both a teaching tool and a memoir.Pub Date: April 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4165-4050-2
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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