Underdeveloped and disorganized but punctuated with bursts of wisdom.\
A slim collection of musings on morality and religion.
Drawing from his personal diary, Ciko (Midnight on Fireworks Island, 2015) presents a smorgasbord of ideas intended to guide readers’ spiritual development. While Ciko doesn’t specify any religious affiliation, the New Age–y writing seems to align with Judeo-Christian theology, with much of the book following its familiar teachings. Through short sections that vary in length from one sentence to a few short paragraphs, the author explores themes of compassion, courage, and moral responsibility. Some entries have an inspirational bent: “God’s light inside each person is infinite. Our job is simply to reveal it.” Others lean more toward the punitive: “Selfish people end up in prison so they can be by themselves.” Throughout, the author frequently returns to the central principle of personal control of one’s own life and destiny. “Once we accept responsibility for our misfortune,” Ciko writes, “at the same time we gain the ability to correct it.” Such guidance may ring true for readers of many spiritual persuasions, but those looking for more detailed advice will be disappointed. Even in the longer sections, Ciko doesn’t always say how he arrived at his proclamations, and he offers little explanation on how exactly readers might apply them in day-to-day life. It’s also difficult to find a logical progression within the book. Passages leap back and forth between subjects, often repeating ideas expressed previously without developing them further. While the raw material of Ciko’s diary may have genuine literary potential, the sections included here would have benefitted from additional context and a firmer editorial hand. The one-line sections in particular would likely be more at home among the illustrations or other visual elements that often accompany inspirational texts. Presented here without a clear organizational structure or much graphic design, their impact is limited. Still, Ciko’s words remain insightful at times, and this book may be a convenient reference for readers seeking new spiritual perspectives or reminders of what they already believe.
Underdeveloped and disorganized but punctuated with bursts of wisdom.\Pub Date: July 31, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4196-4943-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: BookSurge
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
PROFILES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A vibrant, encouraging depiction of a sinister disorder.
A British novelist turns to autobiography to report the manifold symptoms and management of his debilitating disease, depression.
Clever author Haig (The Humans, 2013, etc.) writes brief, episodic vignettes, not of a tranquil life but of an existence of unbearable, unsustainable melancholy. Throughout his story, presented in bits frequently less than a page long (e.g., “Things you think during your 1,000th panic attack”), the author considers phases he describes in turn as Falling, Landing, Rising, Living, and, finally, simply Being with spells of depression. Haig lists markers of his unseen disease, including adolescent angst, pain, continual dread, inability to speak, hypochondria, and insomnia. He describes his frequent panic attacks and near-constant anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure. Haig also assesses the efficacy of neuroscience, yoga, St. John’s wort, exercise, pharmaceuticals, silence, talking, walking, running, staying put, and working up the courage to do even the most seemingly mundane of tasks, like visiting the village store. Best for the author were reading, writing, and the frequent dispensing of kindnesses and love. He acknowledges particularly his debt to his then-girlfriend, now-wife. After nearly 15 years, Haig is doing better. He appreciates being alive and savors the miracle of existence. His writing is infectious though sometimes facile—and grammarians may be upset with the writer’s occasional confusion of the nominative and objective cases of personal pronouns. Less tidy and more eclectic than William Styron’s equally brief, iconic Darkness Visible, Haig’s book provides unobjectionable advice that will offer some help and succor to those who experience depression and other related illnesses. For families and friends of the afflicted, Haig’s book, like Styron’s, will provide understanding and support.
A vibrant, encouraging depiction of a sinister disorder.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-312872-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
SEEN & HEARD
Readers Donate Depression Book After Star Suicide
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