An inspiring true story about the power of hope, optimism, and grit in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
In his debut, former college basketball player and actor Baruti candidly chronicles his eventful life, from his poverty-laced childhood in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo to his unlikely ascent starring in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. The author begins with some cursory information about his genealogy before plunging into his family’s flight from their home and struggle to survive the horrific violence of civil war, all before the author was 10 years old. When the violence in the country became somewhat tolerable, his family settled in Kinshasa, where Baruti developed an obsession with basketball. He secured a scholarship to a prep school in America, but things went awry due to a self-interested distant cousin in the States, culture shock, an unsympathetic coach, and the ever looming threat of an invalid visa. Suspense builds as Baruti chronicles how he navigated the labyrinthine protocol of U.S. immigration law and the effect it had on his ability to play college basketball in his new home. But that was only one of the many hurdles that could have dashed his dreams at any moment. All of this drama unfolds in short, snappy chapters, and the author’s voice is friendly, clear, and direct. Much of the book centers on his love of basketball, but one needn’t be a sports fan to enjoy the book. Baruti’s optimism is so infectious and believable that readers can’t help but root for him; what may seem like naïve optimism masks an intelligent, steadfast, and defiant unwillingness to give up, no matter the odds. The author suffered countless setbacks on his journey. Consequently, by the time he makes it to Hollywood and lands a small role in a major film, readers will feel a palpable sense of triumph.
A moving, genuinely uplifting tale that highlights how resilient the human spirit can be.Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6499-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
Categories: BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
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The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | PSYCHOLOGY | HISTORICAL & MILITARY
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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
Categories: BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY
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