Fitting somewhere between the stories of Lawrence of Arabia and Anna and the king of Siam, this is nicely recounted by the Jewish carpenter's daughter and son-in-law, bracketed by their own pertinent observations. Actually, Mendel Cohen was more than a simple carpenter. He was a contractor to the king. Abdullah, the only Arab chief known to have talked directly with Israeli leaders, was the first ruler of Transjordan (as it was then known), an entity created shortly before the birth of Israel. Cohen, a native of Jerusalem and fluent in Arabic, was hired in 1937 by then-Emir Abdullah to refurbish his palace in Amman. Work led to friendship, and Cohen soon became familiar with the royal household and the inevitable court intrigue. Portraits of Abdullah's sons, the slow Naif and the explosive Talal (father of Jordan's present king, Hussein), the noble characters, and the wily courtiers are all drawn neatly. The stories related here range from the operation of the harem to feasts in the emir's tent, where an entire roasted camel was not an unusual entree. More than a royal backstairs exposÇ, this is a thoughtful text, respectful of Arab ways and the teachings of Islam as well as the lessons of the writers' own heritage. Biblical history is felt as a current presence. The forces of enmity that finally separated Cohen and the king (in 1948, Cohen fought in the Israel Defense Force against the Arab forces commanded by Abdullah) have not abated, yet years later, visiting Amman at the invitation of Hussein, Cohen's daughter found reason in her father's experiences to hope for peace. An engaging story and a vision of friendship, seen perhaps through rose-tinted glasses, but nevertheless a rare upbeat view in a particularly dim season for Mideast peace. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1997
ISBN: 1-55970-391-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Arcade
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997
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
A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...
The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).
Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-42850-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
SEEN & HEARD
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