The brilliant Polish science-fiction writer (Peace on Earth, 1994, etc.) reflects on his childhood between world wars. In a memoir as playful and witty as any of his novels, Lem recalls childhood days in the city of Lvov in the 1930s. The son of a well-to-do doctor, Lem was a pudgy, somewhat pampered child with a habit of destruction. "I was a monster," he comments drily, reflecting on his childhood manipulativeness and habit of smashing toys. He was also tirelessly curious and always hungry, a voracious reader and a voracious eater. Consequently, many of his most amusing recollections center on candy, pastries, and promoting the cash to indulge in them. He also reexplores the mysteries of the family home, fondly recalling a fascination with his father's medical texts, with their colored plates that deconstructed the human body, and the off-limits (hence, doubly enticing) precincts of his father's examining room. Lem writes with affection and insight of the ongoing war between students and teachers in his gymnasium (Highcastle was a nearby ruin that students would repair to when a class was suddenly cancelled), and he recounts his childhood collecting manias with relish. Above all, in the course of this lengthy essay on his youth, he offers some witty but sober reflections on the nature of memory (which "often fails to retain what matters to me, while retaining what I care nothing about") and, indirectly, on the tragedy of Polish history. A charming, effervescent memoir from a writer who consistently transcends genre.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-15-140218-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 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
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
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