Many knowledgeable comments about art, music and publishing intertwined with religious commentary of the sort one expects...
A journal kept by the scion of the famed publishing family records memories of his coming of age, his youthful conversion to Roman Catholicism and his evolving thoughts on family, art, music, literature and God.
Every spiritual journey that the profoundly religious Scribner documented in 2002 is familiar, conventional even, with few surprises and no epiphanies—though he sees the latter everywhere, just as he sees the hand of God in every coincidence and the touch of an angel in every kindness. Scribner remarks that he believes religion can lead a person to art just as art can lead a person to religion, and both art and music are prominent in many of his entries. Others are autobiographical shards that eventually combine to form a memoir of privilege that ends shortly after he earns his Ph.D. from Princeton and goes to work as an editor at the family’s eponymous publishing house. The author appears to believe in the literal truth of the Gospels, though he is troubled by certain violent aspects of the Old Testament. Twice he expresses great discomfort with Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac; he prefers to view it as Abraham’s misunderstanding of God’s intent. Likewise, he informs us that he doesn’t permit Scribner authors to refer to Hemingway’s death as a suicide, for that is a mortal sin, and surely pious Papa is not roasting in Hell. One of Scribner’s epiphanies is decidedly odd: “Rocks don’t change: they are the constant touchstone of time.” (Geology, we must conclude, has it wrong.) On Christmas night he has another epiphany: Less is more. The next day, he’s on a plane to Florida. We can only hope that, true to the revelation, he’s downgraded his accommodations to coach.
Many knowledgeable comments about art, music and publishing intertwined with religious commentary of the sort one expects from the spiritual-journey genre.Pub Date: April 18, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-51658-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
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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