Winchester (Pacific Rising, 1992, etc.) depicts the central role of the Yangtze in China's long, tumultuous history in a lively narrative that ranges from the scholarly to the surreal to the truly harrowing. Winchester and Lily, his tenacious Chinese assistant, begin their voyage at the mouth of the 3,900-mile-long river, alighting first at Shanghai, where they find a city fiercely shrugging off its 19th-century colonial past and rushing to 21st-century preeminence. Farther upstream they disembark at the most odoriferous city on the river, Zhenjiang, famous for its vinegar factory; tour a tea institute at Lushan, at which a Kafkaesque meeting with ``sleepy, bad-tempered men'' yields a hilarious session of non sequiturs; visit a famous quack herbalist in Lijang who diagnoses Winchester's problems (inaccurately) at a glance: ``Blood pressure, anxiety, loose bowels.'' They get a firsthand look at the Yangtze's power, viewing the aftermath of a flood. While Winchester has his doubts as to whether the current flood is exaggerated by officials as public relations for the Three Gorges dam project, Yangtze flooding, as he points out, has had a catastrophic history; in 1931 alone, more than 140,000 Chinese died when the river overflowed. Recounting the misgivings that the world community harbors about a project that poses massive safety, environmental, and financial problems, Winchester notes that well over one million people will be forcibly relocated, their land covered by a lake 372 miles long. The project will cost the Chinese some $36 billion. Journeying past the dam site, Winchester and his cohort reach the upper Yangtze at Yibin, where the river completes its plunge from its source glacier to the sea, having dropped some 17,660 feet during its passage. The writing here, as elsewhere in this laudable account, is exact and vivid. Both scholarly and slyly observant, this is a terrific read, which should be savored slowly—perhaps with some Lushan Misty Clouds Green Tea. (maps, not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8050-3888-4
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1996
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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