A heartwarming story that will hold appeal far beyond just animal lovers.
The close bond between man and dog is only part of this absorbing tale of love, family and dealing with disability.
At 43, Wolf, a successful attorney, appeared to be at the top of his game when his spine gave way. Only gradually do we learn that his physical problems began when he was 16 and required a spinal fusion. In the years since his surgery, he had pushed himself to the limit. His condition was considered inoperable, and he was forced to retire—and spend the winter in Arizona while his family remained in Omaha. Depressed and suffering agonizing pain despite heavy medication, he struggled to maintain his independence. An encounter with foster greyhounds led him to adopt Comet, an abandoned greyhound who had been trained to race. Comet was not only an affectionate companion; she was also protective and sensitive to her owner's increasing disability. The author began to rely on Comet to help him navigate simple tasks such as getting out of bed or opening doors, and ultimately he trained her to become a service dog who could accompany him everywhere. With the assistance of Padwa (Quick, Answer Me Before I Forget the Question: Everything You Need to Know About Turning 50, 2007, etc.), Wolf offers a wealth of fascinating detail about Comet's socialization and about the breed, who are valued for their keen intelligence, speed and agility. After several years, Wolf found an orthopedic surgeon who was able to partially reconstruct his spine, increase his mobility and reduce his pain. The author admits to becoming manic and refusing to recognize that he was still fundamentally disabled. In his obsessive drive to resume his former life, he alienated his wife, who could not accept his self-destructive behavior. Only then was he able to come to terms with his previously flawed view of manliness and independence, rebuild his marriage and treasure each day.
A heartwarming story that will hold appeal far beyond just animal lovers.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-61620-045-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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