Though having an episodic feel, Ollivier's account brims with a sojourner's passion and an insatiable hunger for new vistas...
Ollivier takes us on an absorbing walking tour of the Silk Road, experiencing many of the same marvels and dangers as the ancient caravans.
Originally published in France in 2001, the book is the first installment chronicling the author’s arduous three-stage journey on foot from Istanbul to the former imperial Chinese city of Xi'an. Ollivier, then 61, began his trek through Turkey in 1999, planning to end the initial stage in Tehran. Firmly believing that walking is the only form of transportation that allows us to connect with cultures and individuals on a fundamental level, the author refused all offers of a ride—until he had no choice. Endlessly curious, Turkish villagers were amazed that anyone would actually walk the breadth of their country, and they barraged him with questions at every stop. Paranoid soldiers and arbitrary constables were more suspicious and aggressive. Ollivier spoke little Turkish, but given Muslim custom, he enjoyed the most extraordinary generosity and hospitality through much of his route. Still, the perils of solo travel, especially hiking through a country torn by armed conflicts and beset with banditry, surfaced the farther east he walked. With determination battling doubt, the author traversed daunting distances on a daily basis, often in mountain country. A fierce attack of amebic dysentery near the Iranian border brought him up short, though he does offer snippets of Silk Road history and longer expositions on Turkish and Kurdish traditions. Ollivier occasionally comes across as judgmental, though not without cause. He romanticizes or overstates certain points, yet he admits to Western prejudice and imperfect understanding. As fascinating as his odyssey can be, this English-language edition suffers from observations on Turkish politics and culture that are 20 years old—fine for timeless village life but lacking for the nation as a whole.
Though having an episodic feel, Ollivier's account brims with a sojourner's passion and an insatiable hunger for new vistas and peoples.Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5107-4375-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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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