A deeply personal memoir that will likely cheer those suffering from chronic illnesses.
In this debut memoir, Irish surveyor Devine recounts his struggle to come to terms with multiple sclerosis.
During the author’s honeymoon in 2006, a doctor diagnosed a tingling sensation in Devine’s arm as stress-related. The misdiagnoses continued for a year after he experienced his initial symptoms, during which the author even became desperate enough to consult a faith healer. When a doctor finally told him that that he had multiple sclerosis and put him on a drug regime, Devine was so distraught that he "felt at times that [he] had joined the living dead". Two years later, he attended a talk by a Scottish “motivational business guru,” and his attitude changed: “Maybe if I approached my own situation in a positive manner, things might improve just a little.” Devine’s aim to “develop talents and potential” inspired him to make drastic changes in his life: He went to a gym, started his own business, looked for inspiration in other people—such as Helen Keller and a partially paralyzed friend—and even ran a marathon. The author also describes the four distinct types of the disease and about 50 of its symptoms, which, along with MS’ generally unpredictable remissions and exacerbations, often present doctors with a diagnostic puzzle. Toward the end of this memoir, Devine expounds on the things that have particularly helped him: medication, diet and exercise, and “positive mental attitude.” Devine’s messages may seem mixed at times; for example, he asserts that with “the right attitude...it is possible to reverse your symptoms and win the battle,” yet mentions a few pages later that while he generally feels better, he’s “still experiencing daily symptoms.” However, many readers will likely admire the author’s courage and determination. His style is unpretentious and easy to read, sprinkled with Irish-isms (such as “flipping heck”) that will charm American readers.
A deeply personal memoir that will likely cheer those suffering from chronic illnesses.Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-1478228523
Page Count: 122
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2013
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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