All the Time in the World

October 7, 2013
This second book from the author of Encyclopedia of the Exquisite fashions itself after the Christian devotionals of the Middle Ages, but here Jenkins eschews the monastic; hers is a meditation for artists, bohemians, and hedonists. Despite its largely superfluous organizational structure, this compendium of cultural curiosities delivers equal parts education and inspiration with a lively voice and a tasteful nostalgia for slower, more deliberate and arguably more entertaining times. When the clock ticks, the scene shifts to a new and delightfully unexpected snippet of history. The morning hours bring pancakes (complete with gluten-free recipe), midday watches the slow demise of the siesta, and giddy dancers waltz toward midnight. The cast ranges from the glamorous to starving artists to far-flung ancients. Readers travel by train with Clara Bow, wander Paris with Joyce and Beckett and a dueling Proust, and indulge the sensuousness of kabuki, the cult of cherry blossoms, and coffee as a mystic nighttime delight. Throughout, fantastic stylized illustrations evoke the iconography of illuminated manuscripts, and Jenkins's enthusiastic research sings in details like polished horses' teeth paving the floor of an English grotto. The book's charm lies in its breadth and scope, and the result, though not a page-turner, is an insightful and contemplative study in culture and all its frivolous progress.

September 15, 2013
A literary excursion around the clock and through the year in miniature essays about a host of diverse, fanciful topics. This Book of Hours, unlike traditional breviaries, does not follow the ecclesiastical calendar through the seasons and times of day with psalms and prayers. Instead, Jenkins' (Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights, 2010, etc.) book is a collection of curiosities. In its chronological presentation, there are more than 75 chunks of oddities of civilization from, for example, the mounting taste for coffee to old Shanghai's cabarets. There's a bit about bebop, a description of rainbows, a history of microscopes and the romance of the Coliseum by moonlight. Clearly, it would be an understatement to call this entertaining compilation of miscellany simply eclectic. Among Jenkins' myriad notes to quirky human history are quick appraisals of the baths, walks, snacks and naps that were quite fashionable not so long ago. People and places, too, are celebrated. Did you know that the legendary prognosticator Nostradamus was a jam-and-jelly enthusiast? Jenkins also includes several recipes, mostly for desserts--e.g., the Crepe Suzette. It is an entertaining accumulation, certainly, with frolics, some bibelots and some bagatelles. Some whimsical pursuits are more interesting than others, but most readers will be happy to contemplate the likes of Charles Blondin on his tightrope over Niagara Falls or Nelly Bly's circumnavigation of the globe. To be taken in measured amounts for best effect, the text, bearing copious bibliography, is accompanied by mannered drawings somewhat reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley. A small Cabinet of Wonder, detailing some diverting oddments and minutiae of past times.

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Starred review from October 15, 2013
Jenkins uses the template of the medieval book of hours, which provided readings and meditations for certain times of the day and seasons, to create an unusual look at how we pass the time. Her hours are vignettes exploring the curious, the beautiful, and the ephemeral, a reflective approach that counters our hyper-scheduled cult of Getting Things Done. This lovely and lovingly researched literary gem encompasses diverse eras and cultures and reveals a world of fancies and intriguing bits of history, including the bicycling fad in 1890s Paris, which changed elite fashion from frilly carriage costumes flaunted by ladies pretending to take the air to pantaloons and bloomers that became so popular the minister of the interior lifted the ban on women wearing pants. French Dadaist artist Francis Picabia's 1924 creation of the short-lived instantan'isme movement, which promoted the exhilaration of living in the moment, granting liberty for all', inspired his outrageous, groundbreaking ballet Relche, created with Erik Satie to attack traditional theater's artificiality. As Satie said, Let us distrust Art: it is often nothing but virtuosity. There is much to contemplate and marvel over in Jenkins' scholarly and highly entertaining book of exuberance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)