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
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
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
© 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.
