An absorbing, well-researched addition to the expansive canon of World War I literature.
The devastating trauma of modern warfare and its influence on psychotherapeutic advancements and inspiration for some of the most emotionally charged poetry of the 20th century.
Craiglockhart War Hospital, which opened in October 1916 outside of Edinburgh, was among the first hospitals established to treat officers suffering from shell shock (later called PTSD). Rather than return these officers to civilian life, the treatment was intended to prepare them to return to battle and fill in the ranks of massive losses sustained since the beginning of the war. Craiglockhart was notable for the significant role it played in advancing therapeutic treatments of shell shock through psychiatrists such as W.H.R Rivers—and for the impact this facility had on the lives of two emerging poets: Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. The literary journal The Hydra, produced by the patients and edited by Owen, became “a vehicle...for some of the most profound and heartrending poetry of the war.” Within an engrossing novelistic structure, Glass, a former war correspondent and author of They Fought Alone and The Deserters, expertly weaves the stories of these men into a history of Craiglockhart and advancing insights into the causes and treatments for shell shock. Along the way, the author traces how class differences influenced the level of treatment provided. Only ranking officers received sufficient treatment for shell shock, while the soldiers were often forced to go back into battle or risk being executed. Drawing from letters, diary entries, and military and medical documents, Glass probes deeply into the complex lives of Rivers, Sassoon, and Owen, and he capably explores the profound influence that Sassoon and Rivers had on each other’s careers and how the burgeoning friendship between Sassoon and Owen impacted their poetry and feelings about the war. “To both poets, the war was damnable,” writes Glass. “Sassoon blamed the country’s rulers and its complacent citizenry, while in Owen’s poetry the war appeared as a natural catastrophe beyond human control.”
An absorbing, well-researched addition to the expansive canon of World War I literature.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9781984877956
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
There’s an abundance of love and gratitude in this wildly entertaining, utterly charming memoir.
A look at the life of one of pop music’s most enduring stars.
Pop star and American Idol judge Richie opens his memoir with an account of his 2015 appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in England, where more than 175,000 people gathered to watch him perform some of his many hit singles. The singer reacts with disbelief to the crowd’s enthusiasm: “Did I dream all of this up? If not, I mean—How in the world did this even happen?” His book, marked with wide-eyed disbelief about his own success, aims to answer that question. Richie movingly tells the story of his childhood in his “forever home” of Tuskegee, Alabama; he was a “painfully, awkwardly, horribly shy” boy who struggled with anxiety and undiagnosed ADHD. While a student at Tuskegee Institute, he joined the funk band the Commodores, who in short order became a sensation, playing residencies at Smalls Paradise in Harlem and opening for the Jackson 5 on tour. With no small amount of gentle self-deprecation, Richie writes about his hit singles with the band, including “Easy” and “Three Times a Lady.” He left the band in 1982 and embarked on his solo career, which saw him take the top of the charts with songs including “You Are,” “All Night Long,” and “Hello,” which cemented his status as a worldwide icon. Richie’s book is infused with gratitude; while the reader gets the sense that he is aware of his talent, there is nothing in the book that comes off as bragging, and he still seems star-struck when writing about celebrity friends such as Stevie Wonder and Gregory Peck. Richie is refreshingly open in the book, which functions as both a fun memoir and a love letter to music and his beloved Tuskegee.
There’s an abundance of love and gratitude in this wildly entertaining, utterly charming memoir.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9780063253643
Page Count: 496
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
