Nothing revelatory here, but a thoughtful synthesis of the most intelligent writing on the Presley phenomenon.
A surprisingly worthwhile addition to the groaning shelf of Elvis books, emphasizing the historical and cultural context for his music and celebrity.
Ponce de Leon (History/SUNY Purchase) makes good use of scholarly material, rock criticism and Peter Guralnick’s definitive two-volume biography (Last Train to Memphis,1994; Careless Love, 1999) to write a short but cogent analysis of Presley’s significance as a musician and a star. He’s particularly good on the transformations in American society that enabled “Elvis the Pelvis,” viewed in the 1950s as a race-mixing, near-juvenile-delinquent—adored by rebellious teens and respected by African-American record buyers, but anathema to conventional adults—to have become by the ’70s the epitome of patriotic values, beloved by conservative, white country-music fans. The author of a previous book on celebrity (Self-Exposure, 2001), Ponce de Leon also offers valuable comments about the ways in which Presley’s unprecedented fame, which in the late ’50s made it impossible for him to appear in public, shaped a weird lifestyle that ultimately contributed to his artistic decline and drug abuse. The story of his career trajectory, from groundbreaking music through mediocre movies to late-life touring, is the same one related in dozens of previous books, but the author retells it well, with respect for his subject and the working-class Southern culture that produced Elvis. He’s considerably more sympathetic than many pundits toward the singer’s manager, Tom Parker, paying tribute to the Colonel’s amazing promotional abilities and acknowledging that his business strategies were in line with Presley’s desire for mainstream success. It’s a balanced assessment, acknowledging that the precipitous decline in the quality of the movies was Elvis’s responsibility as much as Parker’s, but also noting that the Colonel’s decision to limit record releases to soundtrack albums cut the singer off from his musical inspiration, the source of his self-confidence and “the wellspring from which everything else had come.”
Nothing revelatory here, but a thoughtful synthesis of the most intelligent writing on the Presley phenomenon.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-8090-3042-X
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Hill and Wang/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2006
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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