Old-fashioned, wistful stories that will appeal to fans of Geist’s previous books.
The Emmy Award–winning correspondent of CBS Sunday Morning reminisces about the wonderful days of his youth.
During the 1960s, Geist (Way off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small Town America, 2007, etc.) spent his summers working at a resort—the Arrowhead Lodge—owned by his aunt and uncle. In the middle of nowhere, down a winding road, the lodge provided the author with a place to work and make friends, drink beer, and meet girls. In this memoir, Geist takes readers back to those bygone days, sharing his escapades of what life was like for a young man with few experiences under his belt. The author often uses folksy humor to contrast those times with today. “A gas station attendant was a guy who filled your gas tank, checked your oil, coolant and battery fluids, and tire pressure,” he writes. “But those old gas stations did not sell hats and T-shirts, sixty-two different candy bars, fifty-seven kinds of refrigerated beverages, including twenty brands of bottle water. There were no ‘brands’ of water, only God’s. It was free. I know. Sounds crazy.” Threaded throughout this lightweight narrative are amusing, harmless memories of working in the kitchen during rush hour, cleaning out the open-air septic system, and fraternizing with the girls who moved in and out of Geist’s orbit. His portrayals of his fellow co-workers and his family are well-rounded, showing the good and bad in each individual. Geist’s writing is consistently nostalgic as he shows how those carefree summers helped mold him into the man he became. The book is a quick, pleasant read that effectively reflects how his time at the lodge showed him that “life is more difficult and rewarding and fun when you manage to do things your way.”
Old-fashioned, wistful stories that will appeal to fans of Geist’s previous books.Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5387-2980-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
This putative examination of a homeless shelter for Vietnam veterans in Boston is actually an overheated, patronizing, stereotype-strewn portrayal of the ``plight of Vietnam veterans.'' In his first book, journalist Solotaroff examines the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans by looking at its founder, Ken Smith, and five severely disturbed clients. These include a suicidal, alcoholic ex-Marine who is tormented by what he did in Vietnam and is now fighting for the custody of his daughter; and an embittered, war-obsessed, former Army tank commander who ``loved his tour in Vietnam'' so much that he built a military-style bunker in his basement and stayed up nights in his backyard listening for the Viet Cong. Although the unique shelter's story deserves to be told, Solotaroff is the wrong chronicler. In an attempt to pay tribute to Vietnam veterans—for whom he once had ``contempt''—the author does them a great disservice by making wild generalizations based on interviews he conducted with several dozen emotionally scarred men. He claims that ``almost a million soldiers'' came back from Vietnam ``with the disastrous psychic affliction called post- traumatic stress disorder'' but neglects to mention that fewer than half that number still suffer from the disorder. In Solotaroff's world, virtually every Vietnam veteran is a hateful, wife-beating, drug- or alcohol-addicted menace to society. He describes them as ``haunted, death-hardened men, many of them carrying rapes and murders on their rap sheets'' and ``monsters of random cruelty, ruled by the edict of their hair-trigger moods.'' Such men exist, but so, too, do two-and-a-half million Vietnam veterans (of the nation's 2.8 million) living ordinary lives whose biggest problems include thinning hairlines and bulging bellies. Horror stories that reinforce the Hollywood- and mass-media- created image of the screwed-up Vietnam veteran. (Author tour)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-06-017076-X
Page Count: 224
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A barely serviceable biography of the billionaire businessman who controls CBS Inc. from a journalist who doesn't quite know what to make of him. Drawing almost entirely on secondary sources, former Wall Street Journal reporter Winans (Malcolm Forbes, 1990) offers a narrative account of how the froglike Laurence (Larry) Tisch transformed himself into a merchant prince. After WW II service with the OSS, the precocious Brooklyn-born Tisch—who earned a Wharton MBA before turning 21—joined the family firm that operated a handful of resort hotels. As young Larry became adept at identifying, acquiring, and rehabilitating undervalued properties, the prospering enterprise moved into major metropolitan markets and gained a controlling interest in the Loews movie-theater chain in 1959. Tisch soon put this publicly held venture on a profitable basis and made it the vehicle for a series of lucrative investments, in Bulova, CNA Insurance, Lorillard, and other companies. Along his upward way, the businessman has had several brushes with disaster, as when he sold swindler Michele Sindona his stake in Franklin National Bank and was completely hoodwinked by the grifters responsible for the Equity Funding fraud. But the bargain-hunting, cash-flow-minded Tisch will be remembered most for his controversial stewardship of CBS. While the media reported his makeover campaign as an indefensible assault on one of their own, the broadcasting empire built by William Paley probably could not have survived as an independent entity without Tisch's cost-cutting measures. Beyond periodic reminders that his subject enjoys the quotidian challenges of major-league commerce, favors liquid reserves, and has no use for corporate executives who do not focus on the stockholders' best interests, Winans offers few clues as to what makes Larry run. The bottom line: An outsider's one-dimensional take on a consequential magnate whose achievements require a more accomplished Boswell.
Pub Date: May 12, 1995
ISBN: 0-471-54923-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Wiley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1995
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