Epstein's (Pertinent Players, 1993, etc.) fifth collection of familiar essays, all drawn from his quarterly column in the magazine he edits (The American Scholar), maintains his high standards of honesty and amiability. Approaching sixty, this self-described old fogy strikes a cheerfully elegiac note in these admittedly solipsistic pieces. A master anecdotalist, with a talent for quotation, Epstein is a far better analyst of everyday life than he is of art. His love of Henry James, for example, comes across more powerfully in an essay on cars than it does in literary essays on the novelist. Epstein works James into all sorts of pieces here, from a celebration of cats to his vain peroration on hair. That he occasionally repeats the same tidbit might be a sign of the very old age he everywhere laments in this collection. ``An Apollonian kind of guy,'' Epstein gripes about ponytails, bell-bottoms, and suburbia. More seriously, he locates the contemporary rage for interviewing (too many Boswells and no Johnsons) in the obvious appeal to vanity and the lust for fame, to neither of which he is immune. ``Toys in My Attic'' well exhibits his love of word-play for its own sake (``What do you call a toupee? You call it, obviously, `hair apparent' ''), much as ``Merely Anecdotal'' admits his fever for the genre. His article on heroes vs. role models brilliantly decants contemporary rhetoric, and ``Decline & Blumenthal'' lumps together all sorts of legitimate gripes against our time. Signs of personal decline distress him, quite naturally; he reflects in general on the race with time and the intimations of mortality everywhere evident in his old neighborhood. The only more nostalgic piece is his touching memoir of his mother, a woman of great dignity, if no distinction. Good taste, common sense, gentle skepticism: the perfect combination for a light essayist.
Pub Date: April 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-393-03757-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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
© 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.
