A celebration of a heroic feat sure to interest fans of aviation history.
A historic flight recounted in vivid detail.
Fighter pilot and aviation historian Hampton (The Hunter Killers: The Extraordinary Story of the First Wild Weasels, the Band of Maverick Aviators Who Flew the Most Dangerous Missions of the Vietnam War, 2015, etc.) follows Charles Lindbergh’s (1902-1974) thrilling 33-hour flight from New York to Paris, the first solo trip across the Atlantic. When he took off on May 20, 1927, he knew that past efforts had failed, but the young man, who had been a mail delivery pilot, was undaunted. Lindbergh had aspired to become a pilot since childhood: in 1912, accompanying his parents to the Army Aeronautical Trials, he felt “electrified” by flight displays. “I used to imagine myself with wings,” he said, “on which I could swoop down off our roof into the valley, soaring through the air from one river bank to the other.” Hampton portrays Lindbergh as a mediocre student with little interest in world, or even family, affairs: he ignored his father’s career failings, his parents’ estrangement, and political turmoil in the U.S. and abroad. He focused instead on flying, which is the author’s focus, as well. Although he sets the trans-Atlantic feat in the context of post–World War I America, the strongest parts of the book offer a cockpit’s-eye view of the flight. This you-are-there perspective effectively evokes the tension, risk, and skill involved, from the moment Lindbergh settles into his wicker seat, takes off from Roosevelt Field, crosses the coast of Newfoundland, and soars alone into the night above the roiling sea. Storms, fog, wind, clouds, and ice threaten him; he is beset by fatigue and roused by extreme cold and fear. Hampton’s use of technical terms, explained in a glossary, does not detract from his brisk narrative. Overwhelmed by cheering crowds in Paris and the U.S., the shy Lindbergh was disconcerted to find that he had become a hero. Hampton only briefly summarizes his later career and controversial political views, including some accusations of anti-Semitism.
A celebration of a heroic feat sure to interest fans of aviation history.Pub Date: May 16, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-246439-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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
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