Not the usual gossipy tale of the rich and famous, but rather a wonderful history of tumultuous times.
Fort (Archibald Wavell, 2009, etc.) presents a life of Nancy Astor (1879–1964), a Southern belle and the first woman elected to the House of Commons of the British Parliament.
Marriage to Waldorf Astor cast Nancy Langhorne into a Gilded-Age society already well populated by many American “dollar princesses.” The difference was, rather than bringing wealth, she married it. She was brash and had a knack for infuriating people, but she was still the political hostess of the generation. Dinner invitees included politicians, artists, writers and royalty—as long as they were interesting. Nancy, a teetotaler and Christian Scientist, made no bones about her dislikes, which were myriad: music, trade unionists, alcohol, Catholics, Jews, communists, socialists and others. Still, she managed to be elected to Parliament for Plymouth, taking her husband’s place in the Commons when he inherited his father’s title. Fort gracefully interweaves the immense changes that took place in England in those years with the Astors’ efforts to foster the needs of their constituents. Nancy was considered too liberal by her contemporaries, especially in relation to her promotion of women’s and children’s issues. At the same time, her attitude toward government intervention would suit today’s conservatives well. She was assertive to the point of bullying and had a caustic wit; she said whatever was on her mind. Her antics keep this book moving briskly, and the author’s keen knowledge of the early 20th century is impressive. Nancy was a loose cannon who, in spite of herself, managed to aid the English in their struggle through the Depression and two world wars.
Not the usual gossipy tale of the rich and famous, but rather a wonderful history of tumultuous times.Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-312-59903-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 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
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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