Fidel’s illegitimate offspring informs the waiting world that the Cuban dictator is not an especially cuddly fellow. Fernandez, now living in exile in Spain, recounts with a relentlessly thumb-in-mouth attitude her years of growing up in revolutionary Cuba. Her —characters— number not only Marxist heavies like Raul Castro and Che Guevara (who —looked like a big frog,— and who sired an illegitimate daughter of his own with —a pair of prize-winning boobs—), but also elves, gnomes, and sprites. In the hands of Gabriel Garc°a M†rquez, the bow to magical realism might have worked. But in this young woman’s coming-of-age tale, the approach proves irretrievably cloying. Fernandez dishes plenty of dirt about her famous father, who was in no hurry to acknowledge her publicly, but who made sure she was blessed with a steady supply of Barbie dolls, chauffeured cars, and well-situated beaux. Some of the dirt here: Castro was once married to the daughter of a high official in the Batista dictatorship, a union that allowed him to receive a lenient sentence after his guerrilla band’s ill-fated assault on Santiago, in which —many of his men died or suffered torture, while Fidel had not even a single scratch.— A little more: His Highness liked to swim—but only after the beaches had been cleared of any other bathers. And then, gulps Fernandez, Castro didn—t approve of her frequent and disastrous marriages and love interests. Another item: He dispatched tens of thousands of Cuban soldiers, including some of her boyfriends, to die pointlessly in Angola. To punish her distant father, preoccupied with the business of spreading revolution and staving off Yanqui imperialism, Fernandez became a fashion model—and famine-stricken Cuba’s only voluntary anorexic. Fidel must have been relieved when his daughter left town. Readers who brave her whines will feel that the book ends not a page too soon. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-312-19308-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1998
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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