Essential reading—as is all of Terkel’s work—for would-be practitioners of journalism, oral history and “active listening.”
A personal anthology of unpublished pieces by the nonagenarian master of oral history.
Following closely on the memoir Touch and Go (2007), this small selection illustrates some of the episodes in that nicely anecdotal book and might best be read with it alongside. At the start, Terkel revisits his early beginnings as an actor of many voices, most of them gangsterish—Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney—and most leading up to a climax along the lines of, “Fuggiva me, Mudder of Ooaawwow!” Readers interested in tracing the origins of Terkel’s interview style, and particularly of his early work on the Great Depression, have the answer here in a radio broadcast that is most timely today. Says one interviewee, sagely, “It’s really—it’s really hard to…to talk about the Depression because what can you say except you were hungry.” The Wizard of Oz and “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” lyricist Yip Harburg adds more wise words to Terkel’s discussion of the era, as does his luminous, too-brief reflections on Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, a painting that hangs in the Art Institute of his beloved Chicago, a place rapidly disappearing. In that vein, Terkel laments the growing cancer of “The Red Lobster. The Golden Arches. Marriott hotels. You can’t tell one city from another.” This is no old man’s nostalgic grousing—though Terkel would be entitled to that—but instead the populist editorializing of a great progressive whose credentials acquire new depth with his searching interview with the African-American novelist James Baldwin, who seldom had such a sympathetic ear for his remarks on race in America: “To be a Negro in this country is really just…never to be looked at. And what white people see when they look at you is not really you.”
Essential reading—as is all of Terkel’s work—for would-be practitioners of journalism, oral history and “active listening.”Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59558-423-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: The New Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2008
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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