A breezy read through a breezy life.
The anecdotal sequel to the cult actor’s bestselling memoir.
Campbell (Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way, 2005, etc.) describes this book as “part two of a three-act story,” and it often feels like a place holder, following the surprise success of If Chins Could Kill (2001) and anticipating whatever is to come. A perennially working actor in B-movies and cable series, the author explains the extended interval between his first book and this one: “like a slow-growing oak, it could take fifteen years for me to amass enough anecdotes for another autobiography.” During this time, Campbell avoided typecasting by playing both Santa Claus and a 68-year-old Elvis Presley suffering from penis cancer. He had adventures shooting movies in Bulgaria, New Zealand, and the Navajo country of New Mexico. He and his wife moved to Oregon, where he joined the Elks Lodge, whose members thought he was making fun of them when he took the pledge. “I’m an actual actor, so I’m prone to be a bit more ‘theatrical,’ ” he reassured them. Then he explains to readers, “aside from being old-fashioned and a little kitschy, the organization donates a lot of money to charity and the drinks are really cheap!” Among other discoveries, Campbell learned that Oregon culture is possibly even crazier than that in LA and that driving there is definitely more dangerous. And the secret to Hollywood? “It’s really just a big, tangled web of schmoes who keep running into each other over and over.” Fortunately, one of Campbell’s schmoes is Sam Raimi, a lifelong friend since they were kids playing with Super-8 film and later one of the highest-paid directors in the business. Through Raimi, Campbell landed bit roles in the first three Spider-Man movies. The author’s work on the Burn Notice TV series and his cult movies, including Evil Dead, have brought him a variety of fruitful opportunities, including an invitation to entertain the troops in Iraq.
A breezy read through a breezy life.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-12560-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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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