Not just the drabs and dribs of the 1972 posthumous collection, The Time Element, with some stories that are stronger along with occasional ones which are flat and have been overtaken by time. O'Hara — you know him well — from Gibbsville to Hollywood to Ohio, from country clubs to poolrooms, from men of property to some of lesser circumstance like unremarkable "George Munson," from fathers to incommunicado sons ("I'm sorry, son, but I guess we didn't have much to go on. Golf isn't enough") or the husband with a wife to whom he addresses an annual "Christmas Poem" — in other words the all kinds O'Hara wrote. Among the best, "Sound View" and the title story (more recent — 1968) about the man who cracked up after having given up trying. . . Always there is the remarkable facility, the class cachet ("If there are family reasons for going to Pomfret you'll have to make allowances") and the mimetic accuracy with which he transfixed certain people in certain places at certain times.
Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1974
ISBN: 0340194367
Page Count: 297
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1974
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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