Lively, wide-ranging collection of 75 pieces written over the past ten years by the author of The Satanic Verses. Would this collection exist had The Satanic Verses not made the Ayatollah Khomeini's hit parade? Yes. Rushdie has the extra edge of an international mind that acknowledges two political and several literary homelands. His subjects here revolve around the politics of India and Pakistan, censorship, literature, movies, TV, the experience of Indian migrants to Britain, his thoughts on the Thatcher/Foot election, and on writers: Anita Desai, Kipling, V.S. Naipaul, Graham Greene, John le Carre, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Raymond Carver, Saul Bellow, Philip Ruth, Thomas Pynchon, and so on. He comes down hard on the recent spate of British-Indian shows, finding Gandhi, A Passage to India, The Far Pavilions, and The Raj Quartet/The Jewel in the Crown to be guilty of the sins they attack: the Indians do not get equal time while British rule is glamorized; it is the British characters whose stories matter to the writers and filmmakers. He dismantles "Inside the Whale," George Orwell's famous essay defending Henry Miller's political quietism, and attacks the same quietism in Orwell's 1984, to show that "there is no whale. We live in a world without hiding places. . ." He stands up for Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray against the Bombay film hacks. He praises Terry Gilliam's "magnificent film of future totalitarianism," Brazil, which combines Franz Kafka with Frank Capra. But perhaps the most eye-opening and affecting piece here is a long talk between Rushdie and Edward Said about Zionism and the nature of being a stateless Palestinian, "the victim of a victim." Rushdie's probing, teasing, intelligent voice is in every sentence; every word he writes feels personal. You can't ask for more than that in an essay.
Pub Date: May 1, 1991
ISBN: 0140140360
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1991
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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