An enjoyable, moving read about the pleasure of being just a little bit different.
A memoir about a free-spirited young woman who, together with her quirky family, prepares for her grandmother’s death.
Debut author Neal tells the story of her large, unique and oft-reconstituted family that suffered through “three generations of failed marriages.” Shortly after the book begins, Buffi is called to the bedside of her grandmother Mopsie, a woman considered by her offspring to be both an uber-matriarch and dark mystery. Buffi’s unnamed mother assures her that unlike the many other near-death moments Mopsie has endured during her time in hospice, this time, Mopsie is really dying. But she’s not: After an overnight scare, Mopsie miraculously recovers yet again. The closer-than-usual brush with death reminds all of Mopsie’s grandchildren that they ought to be visiting her in hospice more frequently. As a result, readers see Buffi spending time with her siblings, especially her excommunicated brother, David, and even her persistently antagonizing mother. Buffi and her family pass many hours reminiscing and sorting through Mopsie’s belongings, and Neal’s straightforward, richly detailed prose offers a cornucopia of family memories painting a vibrant picture of Buffi’s childhood. With both insight and humor, Neal describes many of her family’s offbeat experiences, such as living with their Christian mother on an Israeli kibbutz, her mother’s affair with a married man and her sister’s kidnapping by Mopsie. Buffi concludes that Mopsie’s stubborn refusal to die must be a sign of unfinished business on this Earth. Although at moments the book reads more like a personal tribute to her family and less like a factual work meant for the public, Neal’s affection for her family is so palpable it nearly jumps off the page. Readers will find themselves hoping Buffi will finally discover her distinctive place in this family she so clearly adores.
An enjoyable, moving read about the pleasure of being just a little bit different.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2012
ISBN: 978-1451591019
Page Count: 198
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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