Though the book’s message isn’t new, patient readers may find new ways of thinking and relating to themselves and others.
Clark explores the idea of addiction as an American affliction, one that each of us must be aware of in order to recover.
In Clark’s debut, the sex therapist and addictions counselor presents the broad premise that nearly all Americans are addicts of one kind or another. According to the author, our addictions aren’t just to substances but to behaviors like shopping, texting, eating, sex and, most uniquely perhaps, to stress and obsessive thought patterns. She grounds her argument in a struggle between the limbic system (the “Caveman Brain”) and the prefrontal cortex (the “Enlightened Brain”), a similar duality to one that emerges later in the text—the pairing of “Adult” behavior and “Child” behavior as the two main forms of emotional communication. Clark provides personal stories as well as general anecdotes as she explains the way addiction works. The author offers communication and relaxation techniques, as well as a curious section at the end of the book in which she details the ways that her dog is the ideal model for “Connection.” While the book may serve as a good introduction to addiction and finding inner peace, its bibliography—which includes books such as The Celestine Prophecy—feels flimsy, and the overall approach lacks substance. At times Clark’s tone feels pseudospiritual, referring to the “many meanings” of God and intoning the author’s place as a sort of prophet by calling this book her gift to the world. Readers who can look past such moments are likely to find some gems of wisdom here. Clark underscores her message by capitalizing the words “Connection” and “Disconnection” whenever they appear in the text, the idea being that genuine connection with others is a constant struggle and the only way to move away from addictive behaviors.
Though the book’s message isn’t new, patient readers may find new ways of thinking and relating to themselves and others.Pub Date: June 6, 2011
ISBN: 978-1456505158
Page Count: 156
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.
What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-101-946909
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
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