This collection of fragments by Nobel Prizewinner Canetti raises the vexing question: Is an aphorism merely the printed analogue of a sound bite? Canetti, who won the prize on the strength of his novel, Auto-da-FÇ (not reviewed), and his sociological study, Crowds and Power (not reviewed), has since then written in ever smaller portions. Much of this has to do with Canetti's intense distrust of systematic thought, which makes sense in a man who witnessed the ideological excesses of 20th-century Europe. Most of the shards collected here read like diary entries ripped prematurely from their notebooks: ``A man one knows only at daybreak''; ``He hearkens in cosmic space to ultimate thoughts.'' Perhaps there is a monkish purity in such brevity—an old man shedding useless trappings as he approaches a knowledge of what does and doesn't matter. Or, maybe, like most diaries and notebooks, this is just one writer's chaff and should be treated as such.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-374-10254-6
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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