The border breaks down at this collection’s core. No matter how resonant the metaphor, the writers Stavans has gathered do...
A collection of “piezas de ocasion” – slim essays, reviews and prologues by South American writers looking north, and North American writers looking south.
Author and essayist Stavans, who grew up Jewish in Mexico and now teaches at Amherst, makes maximal use of geographic and cultural distances in organizing this collection. Although he defines a border as “nothing but an artificial divide,” he also maintains that for him, “la frontera” has been an obsession since 1985, when he first crossed it. Here he gathers an array of pieces that function almost like facing mirrors: From each side of the Rio Grande, consummate writers reflect on their peers from the opposite shore. Rather than revealing unsuspected truths about each other, though, they invariable expose specific truths about themselves. Carlos Fuentes, writing about William Styron’s use of language as a paradoxical force, demonstrates his own sensitivity to the interplay of language and power – and the importance he places on both. Juan Carlos Onetti, reviewing Lolita, reveals his contempt for the “secret symbols, melancholy, and handshakes” shared by the author and his audience, even as he lauds Nabokov’s talent. And Jorge Luis Borges betrays his disaffection for allegory as he explores the implications of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Calvinism. Although each essay has its own integrity, the 32 selections are not uniformly strong; nor do they cohere any more readily when ordered by the academic conceit of the frontier. Borderline opposition certainly exists, but as a structural device it seems highly artificial; these writers do not speak to division as much as connection, even when they’re taking issue with each others’ artistic obsessions.
The border breaks down at this collection’s core. No matter how resonant the metaphor, the writers Stavans has gathered do not address cultural and political divisions as directly as the omnipresent links between power, language, and art.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8223-2400-8
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Duke Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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
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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