Simple lessons with homely charm.
Eze’s (Uchechi, 2011, etc.) latest nonfiction discusses different styles of leadership.
Eze assumes the voice of a young man he calls “Chidi King” as he emphasizes political, parental and spiritual types of leadership. Observing his mother’s hens leads him to reflect on the chickens’ human counterparts and how their actions might be related. The lessons are supported with simple, folk tale–style stories and bare-boned biographical sketches of generally well-known historical figures (e.g., Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr.). The narrative suggests that there are three sorts of leaders—destructive, negligent and responsible—and describes each in a separate chapter that ends with a list of associated personality traits. Destructive leaders, like hens who eat their own eggs, are murderers, be they perpetrators of the Holocaust, present-day terrorists or even parents who abort a pregnancy. Chidi relates a story of a couple who did just that; in this rather superficial treatment, gray areas aren’t addressed. Negligent leaders, potentially including parents, are like the hen who failed to protect her chicks from a hawk; they’re to blame, for instance, for children like the junkie whom Chidi encounters near the World Trade Center. Finally, like the hen who provides grain for her chicks, responsible leaders are not only “generally intelligent and well-informed,” but also “compassionate, caring, and loving.” Eze shows how people like Eleanor Roosevelt, Yitzak Rabin and Pope John Paul II proved themselves to be models for this kind of leader: John Paul, for example, “believed that he owed all of mankind an equal share of love and respect.” One chapter, “When Mothers Hens Clash,” discusses the struggles between destructive and responsible leaders who aim to “shape the conditions and limits of human progress.” The goal for leaders is to raise happy, well-fed chicks—a fair though not particularly sophisticated metaphor for the challenges in the world. Although readers may be familiar with most of this material, the author’s earnest, charming tone makes it all the more engaging.
Simple lessons with homely charm.Pub Date: June 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-1477211373
Page Count: 132
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An impressively thoughtful expression of spirituality.
Two men discover God on two different paths in Malby’s curiously titled first novel.
In some unspecified part of Middle America, two boys bond as toddlers in their rural hometown during an era in the 20th century when outhouses were the norm and child mortality rates were high. The boys grow apart and reconnect during manhood, finishing their long lives together. As youths, they become alienated by Windknocker, another name for God, which is further explained about halfway into the novel. Yet the titular Windknocker ultimately unites them and gives purpose to their lives. To cover the decades of their friendship, the narrative zips along like a skipped rock over water, pausing only to focus on key events in the characters’ lives. Often, these moments are what the two men look back to later in life as they attempt to resolve their differences regarding the meaning and practice of faith. Mew, the main character, takes the formal route through the Catholic priesthood during the tumult of Vatican II. His best friend, Leezie, lives in an informal street ministry as a laborer and soldier in World War II. As boys and men, they live on opposite sides of the tracks—literally at first, and figuratively later, with personalities as different as their origins, lifestyles and faith. Mew’s faith is intellectual (“religion wasn’t about experience but working toward perfection”); whereas Leezie’s faith is intuitive, particularly after he’s “borned again” during a revival meeting. Malby tells their story in memoir format through Mew’s voice, diverting occasionally into an omniscient observer—sometimes transitioning like an emcee—to cover episodes in Leezie’s life. The switches in point of view aren’t disruptive, although they give the narrative an uneven flow. Malby’s straightforward prose contains short, evocative descriptions—“I was sure her eyes sparkled even when she was asleep”—which will comfortably take readers into intimate discussions of faith that are thought-provoking independent of religious perspective.
An impressively thoughtful expression of spirituality.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2010
ISBN: 978-1608622320
Page Count: 306
Publisher: E-Book Time, LLC
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sturdy, exuberant verse.
Like the demigod from which it takes its name, Defining Atlas is a durable, uplifting volume.
A strong current of self-affirmation, self-love, and self-confidence runs through this work, and readers will come away feeling their spirits improved. We feel some of this current in the clever “Limited”; Michaels takes the titular subject and turns it on its head: “I’m new, but I’m old / Not limited beyond my means and methods / But limited because I’m special / Special beyond the heavens and everything that surrounds me / That I’m among…limited.” Elsewhere in “From the ashes…I am,” he sings a hard-won song of renewal and rebirth: “I am victory in its rawest form / I am hope that never conform / I am the will, the drive, and the truth / I am like everyone, like you.” But Michaels does not hoard specialness or victory for himself; he wants it for his reader too, and in “Wake Up!” he urges us on toward a bright future: “There’s something good here for you / Your purpose can never be defined by just one blue / Your destiny awaits you.” Underpinning Michaels’ stirring message is a strong faith in God, whose presence infuses many of the poems here: “But I always thank God for the latter / For the strength and will it takes / Shines so bright / Shines so right.” Michaels often adopts a loose scheme of rhyming couplets, and this decision leads to one of the book’s few weaknesses. Too often, the poet picks awkward or odd pairings; e.g., “And if I could become a perfect saint / I would make believers out of the ones who say they ain’t” and the “you/blue” couplet mentioned above. But such missteps are infrequent, and they don’t dim the warm light that emanates from Michaels’ fine volume.
Sturdy, exuberant verse.Pub Date: March 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5035-4785-8
Page Count: 106
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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