The noted British novelist (Shame, Midnight's Children) reports on a recent visit to Nicaragua. Rushdie came to the country with a basically anti-American point of view, objecting to the "dirty tricks" of the Reagan government which, as he duly quotes Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, are looked upon as "worse than Hitler." Rushdie's lack of sympathy with Americans extends to a clumsy attempt to capture American dialogue, speckled with "reckons" and similar clichés, surprisingly maladroit for so accomplished a writer. However, this brief but telling account does not idealize the Sandinistas either. Where they show ignorance or naiveté, it is commented upon, such as when an interpreter finds it impossible to believe that forced labor camps exist in the Soviet Union, or when Cultural Minister Ernesto Cardenal refuses to ackowledge any human-rights violations against writers and homosexuals in Castro's Cuba. Although obviously not a reporter by temperament, Rushdie does a diligent journalistic job of seeing the country, even visiting the hospitals full of young casualties of the fight against the contras. Most of this closely argued little book is appealing for its sympathy with this troubled country, where most politicians are poets: Ortega says that "everybody is considered to be a poet until he proves to the contrary." Another poet of Nicaraguan history, trapped by Somoza and ordered to surrender, responded with the memorable line, "let your mother surrender!" But ultimately the unanswered anti-American bias here will gall.
Pub Date: March 1, 1987
ISBN: 081297672X
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1987
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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