Katherine Hyde

More from Our Own Reviewer

71's very own book reviewer, Martin Rubin, invites us to savor Nadine Gordimer's latest book of short stories and John Maxtone-Graham's history of the luxury liner Normandie. Scroll down to read excerpts of the two reviews, and for links to the complete articles.The whole world informs Nadine Gordimer's 'Beethoven'Martin RubinSan Francisco ChronicleSunday, December 9, 2007Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth BlackAnd Other Stories By Nadine GordimerFARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX; 178 PAGES; $21The pages in Nadine Gordimer's slim new collection of stories truly contain multitudes, so rich are they with invention, insight and artistry. Now in her mid-80s, the South African Nobel laureate demonstrates once again that she is one of those rare writers who do not lose their shine in old age.A dozen years after the end of apartheid, which she exposed and fought in her fiction, Gordimer shows herself in "Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black" less interested in her liberated native land, although it does, of course, show up sometimes. She is now free to be the true citizen of the larger world - politically, socially, literarily - that her artistry and nature always inclined her toward. And how she revels in the 21st century, alive to its opportunities and possibilities, always curious, and, above all, engaged with the varieties of experience, her own and others'. . . .For the full article in the Chronicle, click here.An Art Deco Palais on the SeasBy MARTIN RUBINWall Street Journal December 8, 2007; Page W13Normandie?By John Maxtone-Graham?Norton, 259 pages, $100"Maritime historians are prone to iconolatry," says John Maxtone-Graham at the outset of "Normandie," a handsome and comprehensive look at the queen of France's maritime fleet in the 1930s. Mr. Maxtone-Graham, who has written nearly two-dozen books about ocean liners, cheerfully admits to worshipping the Normandie above all others.It is easy to share his enthusiasm: The book abounds with photographs of the Normandie's gorgeous Art Deco rooms and fittings, and the author's graceful prose is steeped in delectable detail. The ship's false middle funnel, he tells us, housed a dog kennel "with a Parisian lamppost at one end and a New York City fire hydrant at the other." We can practically feel the exquisite embroidery on the saloon chairs, see ourselves in the gleaming gilt murals and Lalique chandeliers, and taste the sumptuous food served by chef Gaston Magrin, a despot of the stew pot, who commanded a kitchen army of 187.The Normandie launched in 1935, running between Le Havre and New York. Passengers on her crossings included Marlene Dietrich, Noel Coward, Jack Benny and Dorothy Parker. Johnny Weissmuller was photographed making a Tarzanesque dive into the elaborately tiled pool reserved for first-class customers. Another passenger was Mr. Maxtone-Graham's mother. "Her verdict?" he asks. "Magnificent but overblown; I sensed an inherent New England distaste for Gallic excess." . . .For the full review in the WSJ, click here.

by Katherine Hyde

Rubin on 'The Mitfords'

Words Between Wayward AristocratsBy MARTIN RUBINWall Street JournalDecember 7, 2007; Page W6THE MITFORDSEdited by Charlotte Mosley(Harper, 834 pages, $39.95)Near the end of Nancy Mitford's novel "The Pursuit of Love" (1945) comes a delicious Mitford moment when two young aristocrats, in an English country house, await the expected German invasion in the summer of 1940. One of them bursts in on the other."'You'll never guess,' she said, 'in a thousand thousand years who has arrived.'"'Hitler,' I said stupidly."In real life, the remark would not have been fanciful or stupid. For if there was any family with members who might have welcomed the Fuehrer to England, it was the Mitfords, the 20th-century expression of an ancient line going as far back as Saxon times. The family's barony was comparatively recent, though, conferred by Edward VII in 1902. The Mitfords had no big familial estate. But they did possess an enormous talent for eccentricity, if such a tame word can possibly encompass the six sisters whose letters Charlotte Mosley has brought together in "The Mitfords."...Enjoy the full review here.

by Katherine Hyde

Rubin on Coward Letters

In the LA Times, Martin Rubin reviews 'The Letters of Noel Coward,' edited by Barry Day:

The Master's voice

By Martin Rubin
Special to The Times - Dec. 1, 2007

The portrait on the cover of "The Letters of Noel Coward" complements perfectly this fascinating and revealing new collection. The photograph by Cecil Beaton shows the "Master," as the actor, playwright and composer was known in his circle, bolt upright in a rocker, cigarette holder at a jaunty angle. It captures Coward's public image and is the ideal companion to the dry, brittle, utterly distinctive voice that emerges from these letters. A Yeats' biographer's famous dialectic on the poet as the man and the mask applies to many 20th century literary lions but to none better than Coward, whose persona became as readily identifiable in his offstage pronouncements as in his plays. . . .

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-book1dec01,0,4726663.story?coll=la-books-headlines

by Katherine Hyde

Rubin on 'The Tenth Muse'

Friday, October 26, 2007---SF Chronicle
Editor who gave us Julia Child reflects on her own life in food
Martin Rubin

The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food By Judith Jones KNOPF; 304 PAGES; $24.95

"In the early 1950s, Judith Jones returned to the United States after several years in Paris. Hired as an editor at the New York publishing house of Knopf to work on its translations of such authors as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, she soon widened her field to include writers like Elizabeth Bowen. But something had happened to her in France, besides improving her language skills and finding the man who would be her husband for nearly half a century. She had fallen madly, hopelessly in love with French cuisine. Unfortunately for Jones and her husband, Evan, hopeless seemed indeed to be the word for the food scene she found on her return to the United States. . . .

"It is not an exaggeration to say that by bringing us the likes of Elizabeth David, James Beard and Julia Child, Jones changed the way Americans cooked, shopped and ate. And she has continued to broaden horizons with books filled with the wisdom and panache of cooks such as Madhur Jaffrey, Claudia Roden and Lidia Bastianich. . . ."

For the full review, click here.

by Katherine Hyde

Rubin on Joyce Carol Oates

From the Oct 5 San Francisco Chronicle, an excerpt from Martin Rubin's perhaps surprising review of The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates:

"When you think of Joyce Carol Oates, you think of passionate writing, intensity of feeling, lurid situations. The last words you would associate with her would be pallid, lukewarm, watery. Imagine, then, the surprise of turning to "The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates," this selection of the journals she kept from 1973 to 1982, anticipating all the imaginative engagement generally to be found when she has put pen to paper and ending up in the low-temperature universe of this representation of her quotidian life. And, shockingly, it is the way this life is presented that is so - well, you cannot avoid the word no matter how hard you try - dull.

"For Oates leads a perfectly eventful life, both inwardly and outwardly. These years see her move from Ontario to Princeton, where she becomes part of an interesting, to say the least, group of people, many of whom become her friends. She is happily married to a man who shares her interests. In addition, she gets to know writers such as Philip Roth and Susan Sontag. She attends conferences and gives lectures, talks and classes. She enjoys reading widely among both contemporary literature and the great classics of the past. She is intensely interested in classical music. And, of course, she writes books. All these things she talks about, soberly, intelligently, analytically, honestly. Her handling of everything is in the best of taste, unobjectionable, admirable even.

"Why, then, does it seem so unlike the work of an author of fiction that has always shown such fierce imagination, such fearless reach? How can a writer who has produced such a prodigious body of varied, highly imaginative short stories and novels write such unoriginal, uninspired
thoughts in such a banal way? Why keep a journal - and still more, publish it - when it is so much less compelling than anything else she has written?" ...

The full review is here.

by Katherine Hyde