A pastor revisits the most difficult trials of his life while affirming his faith.
Debut author Ridulph begins his memoir with a nostalgic longing for the 1950s, writing, “Growing up at the time and in the place where I grew up was the next best thing to perfect.” His hometown of Sycamore, Illinois, was seemingly a real-life Mayberry until his family was struck by a tragic, unimaginable crime. On December 3, 1957, his younger sister, Maria, disappeared. The family waited an agonizing year for her body to be discovered and was left with only questions. “I did have peace knowing that Maria was in the arms of her Lord and Savior,” Ridulph writes. “But my life was forever changed.” Ridulph then dips in and out of the present, relating both the events of Maria’s disappearance 50 years ago and the stunning trials that occurred only within the last few years. Now a preacher who has overcome an addiction to alcohol and started his own family, Ridulph knows the man who murdered Maria to be Jack McCullough, a neighbor from his idyllic hometown. Justice however, has not been so easy to achieve. Ridulph and his family tried to navigate a tangle of politics and legal maneuverings as defense attorneys worked to free McCullough. In his despair and frustration, Ridulph found hope in his prayers, which he includes in every chapter. These prayers, like most of Ridulph’s writing, are filled with raw emotion and power, but their placement here undercuts the work’s overall impact. Rather than enlighten his mental and spiritual state, they become tangents that feel unnecessarily long. The memoir’s nonchronological structure also leads to some confusion. Both the kidnapping and a later rape trial are mentioned casually before readers know what they are referencing, leaving readers to backtrack. Despite these structural issues, Ridulph still offers Christian readers a bold look into the emotions surrounding a tragedy.
A powerful but sometimes-confusing memoir about pain and perseverance.
Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5043-6455-3
Page Count: 204
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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