Staggering work. It is not only the tour de force of literary criticism, but also a most profound, protean breakthrough into the nature of reality and appearance, of freedom and determinism, of good and evil. It is also a tapestry of tensions in the form of a tribute to novelist-playwright Jean Genet. a guilty age, says Sartre, Genet holds up the mirror; we must look at it and see ourselves. Crushed at first by a double-dealing bourgeois background (a bastard, then a foster child, then a reform school thug) Genet turns himself "inside out ike a glove"; little by little he digests "destiny", spews forth the pieces; public self-acceptance is denied him but private self-transcendence is not. An "actor" and "martyr", he plays the roles of criminal-homosexual. Sentenced to prison for , he metamorphoses memory into myth, writes his autobiographical fantasias, continuing to live and relive a liturgical instant of childhood: a child dies of shame, a hoodlum rises in his place, the hoodlum will be haunted by the child. enet stakes his life on a single card in a game of "loser wins"; he "invents" a ort of satanic theology, a psychological inversion so complete, an immoral commitment so thorough, that Genet the scapegoat of society becomes Genet the saint of the imagination. As a real-life existential hero, as a "condemned" man, he hooses the consequences of rock-bottom consciousness... This is an amazing analysis of alienation which, incidentally, throws out both Marx and Freud; a superb study of artistic creation as both subject and object. It will irritate; more, it will influence- indeed- it already has. For, published 10 years ago in France, what are the hipster ethics of Norman Mailer or the Negro revolt as preached by James Saldwin but imitations? In any case, in any way you look at it, a real work of real importance.
Pub Date: June 15, 1963
ISBN: 0434671584
Page Count: 652
Publisher: Braziller
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1963
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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