Insightful and a great deal of fun.
Three brilliant sisters with a gift for showmanship captivate a nation as mediums in this true story from the years leading to the Civil War.
It started as a prank on a prudish older cousin. Two adolescent sisters, Kate and Maggie Fox, convince an entire town that their house is haunted by cracking the joints of their knees, ankles and toes to create the sound of spirits rapping on the walls. No one is more fooled than the girls’ mother, who considers it a miracle that her daughters can communicate with the dead, carrying messages that comfort the bereaved. But it’s their shrewd and toughened older sister, Leah, who sees the trickery’s real potential. With Leah’s theatrics and instinct for showmanship, the girls dazzle the Eastern seaboard by holding spirit circles for some of the most celebrated senators, generals and scientists of the time. Skeptics and witch hunters terrify them early on, yet their mix of cunning and luminous innocence helps them avoid detection. Amazingly, they climb the social ranks from lower-class blacksmith’s daughters to being respected among society’s crème de la crème. But Maggie’s beloved, an upper-class doctor, sees through the charade and promises marriage only if she renounces her spirit-rapping. After Maggie gives up all that she knows, including her means of supporting herself, the doctor’s parents refuse to condone the match, and the man, brave enough to explore the Arctic, is too emotionally weak to fight their will. Their fraught romance underscores the tale’s thematic exploration of early American feminism. Among the Fox sister’s spiritual followers are women involved in the Seneca Falls Convention, and the story is both an argument on the ethics of spiritualism and showmanship as it is the tale of three women, successful at supporting themselves but disparaged by men. The story’s lively pace and dialogue are rife with wit, and the Fox sisters are captivating.
Insightful and a great deal of fun.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-595-42350-7
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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