As with all of Kaplan’s work, solid journalism combines with a gloomy sense of history to produce a worthy study.
More travels to difficult places in search of future geopolitical nightmares.
Kaplan (The Coming Anarchy, 1999, etc.) has carved a journalistic niche writing about collapse and decay; if there’s a new Rwanda or Kosovo in the making anywhere on the planet, the chances are good that Kaplan’s been there and reported on it. Here he takes on three smallish geographical areas that, taken together, add up to a big swath along the soft underbelly of Eurasia, and trouble is brewing throughout; looking deep into history, the author defines his area of concern as “a volatile region where the cultural legacies of the Byzantine, Persian, and Turkish empires overlap.” The first section of his account, which he deems a sequel to his fine 1993 study, Balkan Ghosts, examines the continuing fragmentation of southeastern Europe, not so much along ethnic lines (although ethnic struggles play their part) as along zones of influence (with Hungary, for example, drawn ever closer to Russia, and Romania hungering to free itself from Russia and become a part of the happy Western family of nations). His reportage from Sofia, Bucharest, and Budapest is literate and sharply drawn, as is his whirlwind tour of Turkey, where he sees hope for increased democratization and stability in the face of growing fundamentalist intransigence elsewhere in the region. With the death of Syria’s Hafez Assad, the subsequent analysis of the Middle East may already be dated, but the account of changing Israeli and Palestinian relations is valuable. The weakest portion is the last, which suffers from a hurried feel; Yo’av Karny’s exceptional new book, Highlanders (see below), is much better, although readers who follow international events will want to take notice of the author’s checklist of flashpoints in the Caucasus—which includes war between Iran and Azerbaijan, conflicts over a planned trans-Caspian pipeline, and other excuses for bloodshed.
As with all of Kaplan’s work, solid journalism combines with a gloomy sense of history to produce a worthy study.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2000
ISBN: 0-375-50272-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2000
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
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