An enjoyable but less-than-objective biography of “one of the most prominent Catholics in the world.”
Biography of the current cardinal from New York.
Journalist Boyle presents a lighthearted, highly positive portrait of Cardinal Timothy Dolan. As a comparably young cardinal whose influence in the Catholic Church has been steadily on the rise for years, Dolan is a good candidate for biographical study. Boyle’s attempt, however, is often too saccharine. She shows him emerging from a stereotypical 1950s suburban household in Missouri, complete with pious parents always willing to sacrifice for their family. The young Dolan attended a new and growing Catholic elementary school and knew from an early age that he wanted to be a priest. After taking a predetermined track through high school and seminary toward that purpose, he was awarded the rare honor of studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. From that point on, his rise was nearly meteoric. Boyle’s most substantive chapters concern Dolan’s years as a bishop in St. Louis and as archbishop of Milwaukee, during the height of the child sexual abuse scandals in those cities. Since 2009, Dolan has led the church in New York as archbishop and now as cardinal. Boyle has crafted an approachable and readable book and lays a foundation for those hoping to learn more about this influential church leader. However, her work reads like a commissioned biography far more than a journalistic effort. The book is replete with folksy examples of Dolan’s humor, compassion and wisdom, as well as countless doting quotes from those who have known him. Only occasionally does Boyle offer criticism, and the author herself often effuses praise—e.g., “[Dolan’s] joie de vivre was matched only by his piety.”
An enjoyable but less-than-objective biography of “one of the most prominent Catholics in the world.”Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-250-03287-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
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
A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...
The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).
Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-42850-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
SEEN & HEARD
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