bookshelf

A SINGLE TEAR

Name: A SINGLE TEAR
Author: Wu Ningkun
ISBN: 0-87113-494-2

A FAMILY'S PERSECUTION, LOVE, AND ENDURANCE IN COMMUNIST CHINA

by Wu Ningkun ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 28, 1993

bookshelf

A nightmarish tale of political persecution in Communist China. In 1951, Wu (English/Univ. of Montana) left the University of Chicago to return to his native China and teach English literature. But the China that Wu returned to was deeply suspicious of intellectuals, and, two years later, Wu was denounced as an ``ultrarightist, a backbone element of the reactionary right wing of the bourgeoisie.'' What he actually seems to have been was only a naive, somewhat self-absorbed quasi-aesthete—one who tried to forget the humiliation and stress of his state-imposed public ``self-criticism'' by reading ``the Moncrieff translation of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past in the shaded stillness of the garden around my college house.'' But labeled a ``poisonous weed,'' Wu was sent for ``corrective education through forced labor'' to a state farm on the shores of Lake Xingkai, a thousand miles from his pregnant wife and young son. Transferred to the Third Branch Farm for Rightists and Juvenile Delinquents and fed clear turnip soup and sweet-potato strips, he nearly died of edema and starvation. Released to continue teaching, then reimprisoned, Wu was branded a reactionary ``cow demon'' during the Cultural Revolution, then was released again to join his family for reeducation by peasants in a tiny village, with his wife as sole ``ricewinner.'' In 1974, Wu was allowed to teach ``party-approved fiction'' to ``worker-peasant- soldier-students,'' and, in 1978, his name was cleared during a nationwide rehabilitation and he was allowed to return to real teaching. ``I came, I suffered, I survived,'' is how he sums up his experiences. An often heartrending portrait of a family and a life shattered by state paranoia, and of a world turned upside-down. (First printing of 25,000)

Pub Date: Jan. 28, 1993

ISBN: 0-87113-494-2

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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.