An epic, solidly reported memoir even if it tends to keep the more polarizing elements out of the picture.
Debut author Bowen recounts experiences as a U.S. Marine photographer and journalist, followed up by memorable communications stints with the Voice of America and the American Legion.
Subtitled “The Story of a Marine Corps Combat Correspondent,” Bowen’s illustrated memoir covers his experiences in and out of Vietnam. A prolific contributor of photographs and articles to military news outlets, Bowen has a polished, easy, just-the-facts style that makes for accommodating reading for both veterans and civilians. Son of a Linotype operator in Virginia, Bowen started early as a newspaper stringer but learned that without a college degree, he’d never evolve beyond freelancing. The Marines, which he joined in 1960, offered far greater opportunities, and Bowen shot pictures and told stories of corps life for a number of communications outlets, including the storied Leatherneck magazine. Often based in Okinawa, Japan (he also enrolled in and helped shape a prominent military-photojournalism–education project at Syracuse University), Bowen had a correspondent’s access not only to the span of the Vietnam War, but also to NASA (especially Skylab), the Jonestown cult massacre in Guyana, and the hostage crisis in Iran. The author is clearly proud of his Marine (and, by extension, American) heritage, yet he still keeps the lens cap tight over his own politics and emotions regarding some of the most bitter episodes in modern U.S. history. In his exacting prose, one senses Bowen setting his Marine officer/gentleman discipline aside only occasionally, when he vents frustration as an “overqualified” job-seeker in the 1980s when young novices rose above the proven, accomplished vet (fortunately someone at Voice of America got Bowen his next major gig, and he was back doing communications on behalf of Uncle Sam). The final quarter showcases Bowen’s photography—images that portray American soldiers (especially in the Vietnam theater) without losing sight of their humanity. If the writer seems to be holding back a bit on his feelings, these photos speak volumes for him.
An epic, solidly reported memoir even if it tends to keep the more polarizing elements out of the picture.Pub Date: March 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5320-2013-1
Page Count: 412
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
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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