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THE PUSHCART PRIZE, XXVII

Name: THE PUSHCART PRIZE, XXVII
Author: Bill Henderson
ISBN: 1-888889-33-0

BEST OF THE SMALL PRESSES

edited by Bill Henderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2002

The Pushcart shows itself again a stream to pan for gold in.

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The Pushcart, that great democratic literary experiment, continues, in its ample girth, to rumble forward filled with gems, blunders, bafflements, and gifts.

Sixty-six poems, essays, memoirs, fictions, and nonfictions make up this 27th collection of pieces from the thronging world of small presses, and there are plenty of new names to get acquainted with. One of these is Katherine Taylor, with her darkly comic memoir “Traveling with Mother”: “After the mutt dog died of cancer, I suggested we bury it in the pet cemetery outside. Daddy said, ‘What cemetery?’ I said, ‘Where you buried Buttons after you smashed her.’ He said, ‘Katherine, I scraped that dog off the driveway and threw it in the garbage.’ I said, ‘That’s against sanitation laws.’ ” There’s also Dan Chaon’s story of scorn and stupidity cunningly delivered (“I Demand to Know Where You’re Taking Me”), while the hot stiletto is poked into readers by Aimee Bender, in “Jinx.” Aleksandr Kushner provides a sidelong portrait of Vermeer (“This is what is called the absence of biography”) in “The Master of Delft,” and disquieted natural scientist Jeffrey A. Lockwood (“To Be Honest”) writes about how he “began to study grasshoppers in 1986, learning how they spent their days,” the better to kill them. If Louise Gluck’s poem “The Sensual World” cuts you down a peg, then Robert Pinsky’s “Book” will lift you with its offertory music. The shag and floss of D.A. Powell’s “[My Lot To Spin the Purple: That the Tabernacle Should Be Made]” invites rereading after rereading. One of the best selections is John Hales’s “Line,” a memoir of his summer working for the Cadastral Survey in laying down a line straight and true, an experience that leaves him with “chronic ideological confusion, occasional disorientation, and an unaccountable and unseemly pride.”

The Pushcart shows itself again a stream to pan for gold in.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2002

ISBN: 1-888889-33-0

Page Count: 602

Publisher: Pushcart

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2002

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PUSHCART PRIZE XLIX
edited by Bill Henderson with Pushcart Prize editors

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PUSHCART PRIZE XLVIII
edited by Bill Henderson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PUSHCART PRIZE XLVII
edited by Bill Henderson

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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.