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.
