WHEN ALL WHO WRITE OF DESE AND DOSE CAN SHINNY UP J. THURBER'S PROSE, THEIR TALES OF FATHERS, MOTHERS, AUNTS, COUSINS AND UNCLES AND GRANDPARENTS, THEIR "MEET THE FOLKS" (WITH FAMILY JOKES) WILL BE ACCLAIMED. BUT DON'T LOOK NOW — BECAUSE THEY WON'T. THEIR WRITING NOW IS BUT A HOAX — FOR HE'S BOTH ACORNS AND THE OAKS. Happy tumbling around in the family tree, and some assorted local bushes, these are the author's permanent memories of people as important as rain in his early life, from old family history of past ancestors on to Ohio State University professors and Columbus newspapermen he knew. Except for these have appeared in the New Yorker and were happily noted as they were published; here they have been arranged in a "kind of chronological order....with a vague continuity" so that you progress from a step-great grandfather to the great grandfather who licked all his enemies, to Man With A Rose, grandfather who cherished his eccentricities, through to father, who was plagued by the mechanical and the manufactured, to which tells of mother and her elaborate pranks. And there is the practical nurse, the strange baseball field at the School for the Blind, and other assorted Columbian who found out the high visibility in which these people, lovely people, appear. So "meet the folks" in the nicest way possible.
Pub Date: June 12, 1952
ISBN: 1122235267
Page Count: 98
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1952
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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