FEATHERING CUSTER

Name: FEATHERING CUSTER
Author: W.S. Penn
ISBN: 0-8032-3731-6

by W.S. Penn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 14, 2001

Penn has emerged as an important presence on the Native American literary front, and this collection does a generally good...

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A mixed bag of essays by the Nez Perce writer on Native American literature, academic life, and other intellectual topics.

Penn (English/Michigan State Univ.; All My Sins Are Relatives, 1995, etc.) does honor to the trickster characters Rabbit, Frog, and Coyote with these broadsides, which range from highly personal memoirs to formal, sometimes stilted literary analyses, which make use of sometimes simultaneous, sometimes conflicting voices; ego, superego, and alter ego all have a chance to speak, and they can make quite a din. At their best, the essays punch current notions of political correctness and academic protocol square in the chops, as Penn counts coup on stuffy deans, rad-lib separatists, guilty white liberals, conservative columnists (especially the hapless George Will), and semiliterate undergrads. Penn wreaks havoc with a smile or a sneer, as when he twits the dominant culture for ennobling all Indians, forgetting that there are degrees of quality and sophistication to differentiate the work of, say, James Welch from, say, Sherman Alexie, and when he repudiates postmodern approaches to literature (“in order to have the ‘post-modern,’ one needs a foreshortened sense of time and importance. . . . [T]he price for seeing this way, for aspiring to and even achieving this narrowed depth, is boredom”). At their worst, the essays fall into the expected Indians/good honkies/bad cant (“what do you call a white Christian who pretends to accede to the Ten Commandments and yet lusts after power and closeted fellatio with adolescent girls or who kills directly or indirectly every day”), a scattershot approach that lowers the average. Still, it’s an entertainment to watch Penn as he escapes being pinned down, taking up apparently contradictory positions—and even putting in a mild good word for George Armstrong Custer—just for the fun of it all, making friends and foes alike sweat a little.

Penn has emerged as an important presence on the Native American literary front, and this collection does a generally good job of showing why that should be so.

Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2001

ISBN: 0-8032-3731-6

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Univ. of Nebraska

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
ALL MY SINS ARE RELATIVES
by W.S. Penn

- BOOK REVIEW
THE ABSENCE OF ANGELS
by W.S. Penn

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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.