A muted self-portrait of an introspective, spiritually grounded family physician. Loxterkamp chronicles one year in his life, from July 1992 to June 1993, in the small, blue-collar town of Belfast, Maine. His daily pattern is to rise at 4:30 a.m., make coffee, feed the cats, put on some sacred music, and then, while his wife and daughter are still sleeping, sit down at his computer and write in his journal for two hours. The book drawn from those journals offers a richly detailed picture of a physician's life bearing little resemblance to Norman Rockwell's version of the country doctor. Loxterkamp shows us a man fighting off depression, an outsider working hard at belonging to a community, a family-practice physician who sees specialization in medicine changing the world around him, and a husband whose marriage is going through rough times. His medical practice seems to alternate between deliveries and deaths; there are plenty of encounters with the hardscrabble poor for whom alcoholism and despair are the chronic diseases shaping their lives. A committed Catholic and an admirer of Thomas Merton's autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, Loxterkamp attends faith-sharing meetings at his parish church, often wears a chasuble and stole to deathbeds, and goes on retreat to a Trappist monastery. He's also a champion worrier, a dogged runner, a conscientious doctor, and, unfortunately, a rather pedestrian writer. He speaks of celebrating the little things, and of what May Sarton called the ``sacramentality of the routine,'' but here the abundance of details of Loxterkamp's everyday life deadens the reader's interest. Unlikely to inspire many young physicians to take up the life of a country doctor.
Pub Date: April 22, 1997
ISBN: 0-87451-799-0
Page Count: 334
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1997
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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