by Andrew Tobias ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998
Tobias, premier financial author (The Only Other Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need, 1987; My Vast Fortune, 1997, etc.), now turns to autobiography and reveals to the few who don—t already know that he is homosexual. A quarter-century ago, using a nom de plume, Tobias wrote a gay classic, The Best Little Boy in the World, which has never since gone out of print. Now, using his true name, he brings us up to date on his own parallel progress in straight and gay worlds, and on the advances America has made in confronting those, like himself, whose “sex drive had been multiplied by minus one.” His concerns are unsurprising in an-emerging-from-the-closet memoir: how to tell the folks (there was no problem with the Tobiases, once Andy got around to doing it); dealing with losses to AIDS; loneliness; dating and the search for Mr. Right (his type is Tom Cruise); all the many blighted romances and the rigors of true love. Along the way come serial relationships with Peter, Scot, Ed, Tony, Bruce, Matt, Stevie, Tab, and now Charles, with whom Tobias has exchanged rings. And tells of the Renaissance Weekends—where our Merry Andrew became a true Friend of Bill, the Friendly President—and festive weekends at Fire Island, etc., etc. Withal, nothing much here is shocking. Tobias admits to being a good hugger but happily won’t confide further. Yet the text may enrage Trent Lott and Pat Robertson anyhow. It will probably engage some in the gay and lesbian community. The languorous passages may simply bore many straights who wander in hoping for investment advice. Tobias pleads for understanding, maybe a contribution to a good gay-rights cause, and, of course, auto insurance reform (his other constant worry). (Author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-375-50111-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
Share your opinion of this book
More by Andrew Tobias
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006
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
Share your opinion of this book
More by Elie Wiesel
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel
by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 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
Share your opinion of this book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.