Fine bedside reading, and a better-than-average textbook for composition students.
A rewarding collection from the annual Pushcart Prize anthology series, now numbering 25 volumes.
Founded by editor Bill Henderson in the mid-1970s, the Pushcart Prize honored what he considered to be the best offerings from the country’s small presses and literary journals. The period, writes volume editor Brandt, corresponds with “a remarkable rebirth of both the art and the prestige of the essay,” and this gathering speaks very ably indeed to the power of a well-crafted piece of nonfiction to speak volumes in a short space. It begins, strangely, with one of the few clunkers, a diffuse piece on street life on the Mexican border that is long on idiom and local color but short on point; from there, however, the book quickly gathers steam. Brandt’s selections are nicely balanced, mixing work by men and women, by academics and nonacademics, by established and beginning writers; many of the contributions, including both personal and critical pieces, have gone on to appear in other anthologies and collections of the individual authors’ works. Among the many highlights are Leslie Fiedler’s nicely peevish essay “Literature and Lucre,” about just that; Clark Blaise’s longish reflection on growing up Canadian, “Memories of Unhousement”; Donald Hall’s widely cited manifesto “Literature and Ambition,” Joyce Carol Oates’s thoughtful “Notes on Failure”; and Lewis Hyde’s remarkable “Two Accidents,” about the role of chance in art and life. Some of the best work, however, comes from writers who are largely unknown outside the small-press orbit: Irma Wallem’s touching essay “Sex,” set in a nursing home; Thomas Lynch’s “Jessica, the Hound, and the Basket Trade,” which gives readers an insider’s view of the mortician’s lot; and Lars Eighner’s spirited, punkish “On Dumpster Diving,” which reveals the treasures to be found in a grocery store’s trash.
Fine bedside reading, and a better-than-average textbook for composition students.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-888889-24-1
Page Count: 459
Publisher: Pushcart
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2001
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
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
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