The subtitle here is a disappointment, because in fact these gathered examples of Rybczynski's recent architecture journalism aren't historically organized: They show his usual steady hand and watchful intelligence, and yet, lacking the narrative thread of The Most Beautiful House in the World (1989) or Waiting for the Weekend (1991), they can suffer from a recurrent sameness, beginning to feel less like a pleasant ramble than like a journey that won't quite end. Rybczynski (Architecture/McGill Univ.) excels as the architectural chronicler of the personal and domestic, making the evolution of the ``living room'' from the ``parlor,'' for example (``Good Housekeeping''), more than a matter of mere curiosity—as he does also with his recounting of the comfortable sense of place he felt at McGill in his student days (``A Place Map''). Never afraid to be personal (``The building raises my spirits each time I pass it,'' he says of a recently completed structure), he can bring a casual immediacy even to the 16th century by discussing Palladio as an architect whose genius lay largely in inventive cost-cutting (``Low-Cost Classicism''). Rybczynski never raises his voice, but neither does he flinch from the truth (``Never have there been so many celebrated architects; rarely, so few great ones'') or hesitate to name crucial ills for what they are (``Since the reign of modernism...the art of building has been transformed into an art of packaging''). Even so, with its own share of pieces that read as much like architecture reviews as essays, the volume can have a feel of drift—not so much a trip through architecture as a bumping around within it—and one is wistful for the brevity and subtle chronology that helped make The Most Beautiful House so alluring. Rybczynski—estimable critic and valuable observer—in a form best browsed through.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-670-84421-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
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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