Nonbelievers won’t budge—and intrigued readers are better off requesting a transcript of the 20/20 feature that inspired...
A maudlin exploration of the paranormal events that surround Audrey Santo, a comatose 16-year-old from Worcester, Massachusetts, whom many consider to be a saint.
Promoting the notion that Audrey is Christ’s liaison, Felix (What Makes the Grand Canyon?, 1998, etc.) draws on press reports, television features, and interviews to chronicle her subject’s life. After Audrey’s close brush with death (from drowning) in 1987 left her dependent on life-support, her devout Catholic mother, Linda, took her on a pilgrimage to a Croatian village (in what was then still called Yugoslavia) where a group of children were reputed to be receiving apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Linda claims that during their pilgrimage the still-unconscious Audrey communicated with the Virgin Mary and volunteered to become a “victim soul”—a pious Christian who willingly takes on the pain of others in imitation of Christ. After their homecoming, Linda’s testimony was supported by a series of seemingly supernatural occurrences that took place in Audrey’s bedroom: for example, religious artifacts began to move, bleed, and leak oil. Audrey also developed stigmata—mysterious sores that resembled the crucifixion wounds of Christ. Convinced that Audrey was engaged in a silent conversation with Jesus, the family transformed their garage into a chapel and invited pilgrims to use the site as a place to pray for miracles. Although the Catholic Church has yet to conclude its investigation (and despite the fact that the Croatian visionaries have been condemned as frauds by their local bishop), Felix maintains that Linda’s assertions are truthful. She subtly discredits interviewees who question Audrey’s authenticity and portrays the Santos as living martyrs. Her overblown enthusiasm for her subject strips her reportage of credibility, however, and she fails to deliver concrete evidence, leaving us to wonder if Audrey is an ill-fated child who is being exploited. And although the material lends itself to high drama, intrigue, and intelligent speculation, the author’s vapid narration renders even the phenomena of bleeding paintings dull.
Nonbelievers won’t budge—and intrigued readers are better off requesting a transcript of the 20/20 feature that inspired Felix to write this bland and credulous account.Pub Date: April 20, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-27216-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
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Despite its glaring absence of women philosophers, Grayling’s accessible omnibus will provide a steppingstone for the...
A magnificent recapping of the history of philosophy, as it stands apart from theology, in the classic model of Bertrand Russell, as “an invitation and an entrance.”
In the hands of British scholar and journalist Grayling (Master/New Coll. of the Humanities; Democracy and Its Crisis, 2018, etc.), it is a delight to engage in this sweeping history of the great thinkers throughout the ages, from pre-Socratics to the present. Moreover, in the last section of the book, the author offers a considerably shorter yet fair introduction to Indian, Chinese, Arabic-Persian, and African philosophy (hindered only by the “veil” of language, yet he ends with a challenge to readers to address this surmountable difficulty). The attempt to “make sense of things” has plagued humanity for centuries and has also led to its great advances, especially the “rise of modern thought” in terms of empiricism and rationalism as they gained momentum from the 17th century. These great forces unharnessed philosophy from the strictures of religion, culminating in the essential concept, particularly by Immanuel Kant and his fellow Enlightenment thinkers, that the “autonomy” of man meant “self-government, independence of thought, and possession of the right and the responsibility to make choices about one’s own life.” As Grayling notes, this is “essential to the life worth living,” a matter dear to the very “first” philosophers: Thales, who relied on observation and reason to “know thyself,” and Socrates, for whom the first great question was how to live. As he moves into the more recondite reaches of “analytic” and language philosophy of the 20th century, the author mostly keeps the narrative from becoming overly academic. Unfortunately, there is a disturbing lack of women philosophers across Grayling’s 2,500-year survey, even under the cursory rubric of “feminist philosophy.” The author’s approach is especially refreshing due to his acknowledgement that few philosophers were truly unique (even Buddha or Confucius); often what was required for lasting significance was a kind of luck and a stable of devoted followers.
Despite its glaring absence of women philosophers, Grayling’s accessible omnibus will provide a steppingstone for the student or novice.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-7874-8
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
The author’s sincere sermon—at times analytical, at times hortatory—remains a hopeful one.
New York Times columnist Brooks (The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement, 2011, etc.) returns with another volume that walks the thin line between self-help and cultural criticism.
Sandwiched between his introduction and conclusion are eight chapters that profile exemplars (Samuel Johnson and Michel de Montaigne are textual roommates) whose lives can, in Brooks’ view, show us the light. Given the author’s conservative bent in his column, readers may be surprised to discover that his cast includes some notable leftists, including Frances Perkins, Dorothy Day, and A. Philip Randolph. (Also included are Gens. Eisenhower and Marshall, Augustine, and George Eliot.) Throughout the book, Brooks’ pattern is fairly consistent: he sketches each individual’s life, highlighting struggles won and weaknesses overcome (or not), and extracts lessons for the rest of us. In general, he celebrates hard work, humility, self-effacement, and devotion to a true vocation. Early in his text, he adapts the “Adam I and Adam II” construction from the work of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, Adam I being the more external, career-driven human, Adam II the one who “wants to have a serene inner character.” At times, this veers near the Devil Bugs Bunny and Angel Bugs that sit on the cartoon character’s shoulders at critical moments. Brooks liberally seasons the narrative with many allusions to history, philosophy, and literature. Viktor Frankl, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Tillich, William and Henry James, Matthew Arnold, Virginia Woolf—these are but a few who pop up. Although Brooks goes after the selfie generation, he does so in a fairly nuanced way, noting that it was really the World War II Greatest Generation who started the ball rolling. He is careful to emphasize that no one—even those he profiles—is anywhere near flawless.
The author’s sincere sermon—at times analytical, at times hortatory—remains a hopeful one.Pub Date: April 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9325-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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BOOK REVIEW
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