Skip this one, unless you want to read Irene Cara’s musings on inner peace or Susan McDougal’s version of Whitewater.
What happens after your 15 minutes of fame?
Mick Foley, Irene Cara, Jim Wright—if you can’t place these names, you’re okay. They’re three of the once-famous people chronicled in this study of life after fleeting fame. Guinn and Perry (journalists with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Oregonian) pose some interesting questions: How does fame change a person? What is it like to go from stardom to—utter obscurity? Unfortunately, there are no satisfying answers here. One might expect a little history of fame; or some evidence that the authors had acquainted themselves with basic psychology; or a discussion of why fame is so important to the American psyche. But instead of an innovative analysis of life after fame, Guinn and Perry have simply cobbled together overly long profiles of a handful of once-famous folks. Each chapter tends to be the simple retelling of life-stories of people once but now forgotten. Those on Susan McDougal and Kelly Clarkson may come closest to satisfactorily addressing the topic of fame. McDougal found that, after she got out of prison and returned to small-town Arkansas, her life felt meaningless, so she returned to the public eye as an advocate for imprisoned women. Clarkson, the American Idol heroine, had wanted to be famous since she was a tiny tot, and, having achieved fame, she’s doing her fierce (and pathetic) best to hold onto it. Organization is also wanting. Chapters consist of a profile of an individual has-been followed by a chapter that tells part of the story of Melvin Dummar (the working-class guy who claimed Howard Hughes named him as an heir). It’s unclear why the authors devote half their text to Dummar, or why they spread his story out over the entire manuscript. Whatever the aim, the arrangement doesn’t work.
Skip this one, unless you want to read Irene Cara’s musings on inner peace or Susan McDougal’s version of Whitewater.Pub Date: March 3, 2005
ISBN: 1-58452-389-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: TarcherPerigee
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2005
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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