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ZHIRINOVSKY

Name: ZHIRINOVSKY
Author: Vladimir Solovyov
ISBN: 0-201-40948-8

RUSSIAN FASCISM AND THE MAKING OF A DICTATOR

by Vladimir Solovyov & Elena Klepikova ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1995

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A close-up look at the most popular figure within the social and political chaos that is today's Russia. The husband-and-wife team of Solovyov and Klepikova (Boris Yeltsin, 1992) have crafted a highly readable account of Zhirinovsky's rise to fame that presents the nationalist leader as a prism through which the bewildering problems of contemporary Russia are refracted. Russia is today faced with a paradoxical dilemma: how to protect democracy from the demagogue who would use democracy to destroy it. For the authors, the key to understanding Zhirinovsky is the Russian concept of the Vozhd', or supreme leader, the Russian equivalent of the German FÅhrer. In contrast to another recent biography (Vladimir Kartsev's !Zhirinovsky!, p. 360), Solovyov and Klepikova insist that Zhirinovsky was born a Jew and has ties to the KGBcharges that he vehemently denies. His anti-Semitism, the authors contend, is closer to that of Marx than Hitler, theoretical rather than visceral. Two photos presented here are revealing: In one, Zhirinovsky is humbly kissing the cross of an Orthodox priest; in another, he is seated at a stripper's club after attending an international conference in Helsinki. In the elections of December 1993, Zhirinovsky's misnamed Liberal Democratic Party garnered 24% of the popular vote. Was it a protest on the part of the Russians or, as the authors suggest, a rejection of democracy itself? The ``last poet of the Russian Empire,'' as the authors call him, Zhirinovsky clearly envisions himself as the savior of his people and many see him that way as well. While not an academic book, the text is enlivened with aphorisms from the great intellectuals of the 19th and 20th centuries such as Marx, Nietzsche, Kafka, Freud, and Gramsci, and spiced with the ancient wisdom of Russian proverbs and literature of Gogol, Pushkin, and others. An insightful and disturbing examination of a dictator-in-the- wings and the creation of a Russian form of fascism.

Pub Date: July 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-201-40948-8

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Addison-Wesley

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
BORIS YELTSIN
by Vladimir Solovyov & Elena Klepikova

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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.