When, in 1973, the Colfaxes bought 47 isolated acres in California's Redwood Mountains, they had no inkling of the challenges their rough homestead would pose. Here, they tell the fascinating story of their sojourn into ``rural self-reliance.'' Hounded out of academia because of David's radical political beliefs, the authors sought something different for themselves and their sons. With a worn-out chain saw and The Whole Earth Catalog in hand, they cleared the land and built ``Shining Moon Ranch,'' a home that would not have electricity, a telephone, or running water for years to come. Though they became well known in the 1980's for ``homeschooling'' three of their sons into Harvard, the Colfaxes' tale is one of privation and setbacks, with money a major concern. In 1975, after their firewood business proved only moderately successful, David took a teaching job in Canada. But the family hated the move and returned to California to try truck-gardening and raising livestock. Sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and rabbits turned out to be hard work and unpredictable charges for the boys, but eventually paid off in 4-H and county-fair prizes, and in a profitable goat-breeding venture. Here, anecdotes of the farming life are filled with mishaps (baby Garth ``helps'' by washing 50 newborn chicks with Ivory soap); false starts (in 1983, two-thirds of the goats inexplicably miscarry); dangers (the makeshift water pump catches fire and sets half the ranch ablaze); and privations (the family lives without electricity until 1984). The boys, subjected to intense media coverage (60 Minutes, The Tonight Show, etc.), have gone on to Fulbrights and high honors at Harvard, while David, who was elected to the county school board in 1985, suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 1990 while chasing a bear. The Colfaxes have quite a story to tell and do it justice in the telling. (Eight-page photo insert—not seen.)
Pub Date: July 17, 1992
ISBN: 0-446-51489-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1992
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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