Resonant reflections from a skilled literary artist.
A novelist muses on maturing, seeking, traveling, and other themes in this collection of fiction and nonfiction.
Rolnick (Cocoon of Cancer, 2016, etc.) offers 23 essays and stories she calls “tattles,” in which she says she has “blurred the lines of nonfiction and fiction, truth and imagination.” The pieces vary in length from a couple of pages to more than 40, and they’re organized in thematic sections—“Seeking,” “Childhood,” “Maturing,” “A-Musings,” and “Travels.” Each piece is preceded by an italicized summary of its contents. The essays range from “Foundations,” a riff on the importance—and symbolic significance—of finding a well-fitting bra, to “Joy,” Rolnick’s embrace of the titular emotion that she says “creates the wisdom and laughter that will sustain me for another half century.” Fictional imaginings include “Lace,” in which a divorcée, Rose, seeks healing on her trip to a remote Caribbean island; “Mad Matter,” in which Sarah, a cancer survivor, meets a perceptive child and an attractive, mourning fireman; and “New Order,” about an orphaned teenager’s move to her estranged uncle’s home in Florida. The challenges of aging figure prominently in two stories: “Knock, Knock” shares the tale of Selma, who’s dealing with the dementia of her longtime husband, whose thoughts appear in italicized segments throughout the narrative, and “Country Villa,” about a woman visiting her father, Morton, in a nursing home. As often occurs with these types of compilations, the “tattles” collected here are a mixed bag. The most memorable entries are those that skew toward fiction; “Lace” is a particularly lovely example of Rolnick’s mastery at conjuring images of such things as handmade lace and deep-sea diving, which highlight the allure of travel. The essays, while engaging, tend to tread more familiar ground, such as post-divorce dating, and it’s occasionally challenging to keep track of the author’s autobiographical details. Overall, however, Rolnick offers many observational gems to enjoy.
Resonant reflections from a skilled literary artist.Pub Date: June 17, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9845119-5-2
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Sedro Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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