As usual for Oates in whatever form she's working, these seven essays are a mixed bag. Here, she is perfectly willing to write, ponderously: "What we experience as infinite and universal, then, must be seen as a direct response to a given environment: not necessarily our environment, but valuable so far as the repressive nature of any force external to the individual can be externalized as a historical given." A jawbreaker like "Joyce's exhibitionisticicity" blithely roils out. Still, in her discussions of Dostoevsky, Conrad, Wilde, Scottish ballads, Lawrence, and Joyce, Oates surprisingly divorces herself from a celebration of the "tragic," often identified with her own fiction; instead, stressing what she sees, for instance, as Lear's ultimate failure because it does try too hard for destructive hopelessness, she plumps for the transcendence, even the comedy, of archetype; of "visionary expressions." Her involvement with the specific texts (Dorian Gray, Nostromo, Ulysses) is very close: if anything, what prevents this from being a truly impressive collection of criticism is its failure ever to pull upward, to stop boring in; when Oates discusses the Scottish and British Childe ballads, and opposes their New Critical interpretation, she loses us by the wayside halfway through but never seems to notice. These essays are hardly graceful, then; but they have admirable, microscopic commitment, which is a pleasure all of itself.
Pub Date: April 23, 1981
ISBN: 0195028848
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1981
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
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