Erudite essays from one of the world’s finest writers.
A celebrated novelist offers personal essays on religion, literature, his Irish upbringing, and his cancer scare.
“All of us have a landscape of the soul, places whose contours and resonances are etched into us and haunt us,” Tóibín writes in this magnificent volume. These previously published essays show the landscape of the author’s soul, mapping out events that have shaped him as a person and writer. He begins with the most devastating imaginable: “It all started with my balls,” he begins an essay that recounts his ordeal of having “cancer of the testicles that had spread to a lymph node and to one lung.” Grim humor punctuates the piece, as when he describes the time he couldn’t get to the hospital during an emergency because Pope Francis was visiting Dublin and had clogged the streets. The last three popes are the focus of the book’s coruscating middle section. A 1995 essay on John Paul II describes the belief that, under his pontificate, “there will be no change, and no discussion about change,” regarding women priests, bans on contraception, and more—a belief that proved correct. The other middle essays focus on the Catholic Church’s attempts to blame its many sex-abuse scandals on “homosexuality, not celibacy,” and on the authoritarian Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, who, as Pope Francis, suddenly became the “poster boy for informality, humility, and good-natured cheerfulness.” In the title piece, Tóibín movingly recounts his upbringing in Ireland and what it was like “to be gay in a repressive society.” Essays on writers Marilynne Robinson, Francis Stuart, and John McGahern and a moving epilogue on the pandemic conclude the book. Throughout, the poetry of Tóibín’s prose is as impressive as always. In that title piece, he writes that his mother was “what most of us still write for: the ordinary reader, curious and intelligent and demanding, ready to be moved and changed.” Readers like her will savor every page of this book.
Erudite essays from one of the world’s finest writers.Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-4767-8520-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dillard’s story reflects maturity and understanding from someone who was forced to mature and understand too much too soon.
A measured memoir from a daughter of the famous family.
Growing up in the Institute of Basic Life Principles community, which she came to realize was “a cult, thriving on a culture of fear and manipulation,” Duggar and her 18 siblings were raised never to question parental authority. As the author recalls, she felt no need to, describing the loving home of her girlhood. When a documentary crew approached her father, Jim Bob, and proposed first a series of TV specials that would be called 17 Kids and Counting (later 18 and 19 Kids and Counting), he agreed, telling his family that this was a chance to share their conservative Christian faith. It was also a chance to become wealthy, but Jill, who was dedicated to following the rules, didn’t question where the money went. A key to her falling out with her family was orchestrated by Jim Bob, who introduced her to missionary Derick Dillard. Their wedding was one of the most-watched episodes of the series. Even though she was an adult, Jill’s parents and the show continued to expect more of the young couple. When they attempted to say no to filming some aspects of their lives, Jill discovered that a sheet of paper her father asked her to sign the day before her wedding was part of a contract in which she had unwittingly agreed to full cooperation. Writing about her sex offender brother, Josh, and the legal action she and Derick had to take to get their questions answered, Jill describes how she was finally able—through therapy, prayer, and the establishment of boundaries—to reconcile love for her parents with Jim Bob’s deception and reframe her faith outside the IBLP.
Dillard’s story reflects maturity and understanding from someone who was forced to mature and understand too much too soon.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781668024447
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
© Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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