Quirky, often relatable workplace riffing, although its grievances aren’t always persuasive.
In this debut memoir, a Trinidad-born engineer/programmer shares stories of discrimination and absurdity during his U.S. career.
“Whatever happened to standard operating procedures for hiring?” Aaron says several times in this memoir, a collection of anecdotes about his perplexing experiences in corporate America. A native of Trinidad, he earned an MBA and a Master of Science in Engineering in industrial and operations engineering, both from the University of Michigan, in the late 1970s. Although he was clearly as accomplished as other job candidates, he says that he often encountered outright racism; one interviewer turned red in his presence because, Aaron says, he was “not used to outstanding black students, especially one from a poor-ass third-world country.” Recruiters and managers weirdly focused on his Caribbean education credentials rather than on “what I did at Michigan and afterwards.” He also relates an array of other head-scratching incidents, including taking a test for a job and getting a rejection letter nearly instantaneously. Aaron paraphrases pop-music lyrics throughout his narrative, including a chapter titled “What Does My High School Name Got To Do, Got to Do With It,” a reference to the persistent puzzlement about his Caribbean high school being called a “College.” He also uses many abbreviations and acronyms to make fun of and/or mask managers’ and companies’ names (such as a hiring manager he calls “JW—Just Wrong”). The book concludes with facsimile pages of his transcripts and diplomas. Aaron’s feelings of anger, confusion, and bemusement about his treatment in the workplace will certainly resonate with many readers. He thankfully keeps his tales on the short side, providing about 60 quick stories that offer an engaging scope of experiences. Their tone ranges from Office Space–type ridiculous to truly disheartening. However, some of Aaron’s complaints seem one-sided and incomplete; it seems quite understandable, for example, that employers would be hesitant to hire him before he had his green card.
Quirky, often relatable workplace riffing, although its grievances aren’t always persuasive.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4809-1053-9
Page Count: 218
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: June 27, 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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