As everyone knows, McPhee is a man of many parts and interests and this is an assortment of his casuals which take place here and there. From a week's Travels in Georgia with two experienced ecologists inventorying the area's wildlife—opossums snakes, a nighthawk and a canebrake, a weasel (which they roast)—to the title piece in which he and his family spend a day at Loch Ness wondering whether they'll sight that monster who might be a serpent or just a worm. Other stops in Scotland include a distillery with its very special Josie's Well and a ten-mile pilgrimage from Birnam Wood to Dunsinane. His sports pieces include canoeing, basketball, tennis (Rod Laver on the court); the most exciting is Ruidoso in New Mexico where there's an All-American Futurity for a $766,000 purse attended by all the Texas cowboy millionaires, their abdomens sparkling with platters of silver, and one plain man from Arkansas who hopes his unknown Calcutta Deck will bring it home. Outclassing all of them, there's his own applied game of Monopoly in the Atlantic City where it originated—and the present day Search for Marvin Gardens in the one-time exclusive resort's deep and complex decay, rubble, dogs, rooming houses. This is an inspired piece. Occasional reading—McPhee is one of the most unobtrusively instructive and pleasurable writers around.
Pub Date: June 23, 1975
ISBN: 0374514984
Page Count: 324
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1975
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
