A short (224-page) series of low-key essays that offer random reflections on America's recent past rather than any systematic appreciation of what's in store for the country. Drawing on his experience as a globe-trotting journalist, Halberstam (Summer of '49, etc.) leaves little doubt that the US is losing a substantive measure of its socioeconomic power and geopolitical influence. Early on, for instance, he cites a contemporary's wry comment: "The Cold War is over; the Japanese won." In surveying the convulsive events in Eastern Europe and harking back to Vietnam, moreover, the author concludes that the threat posed by Communist states in the post-WW II era was more real than imagined; he fears, though, that the resources and emotional capital committed to keeping ideological enemies at bay proved unduly costly. In the meantime, Halberstam observes, Japanese manufacturers have been outhustling their stateside competitors in consumer as well as industrial markets where success now depends on advanced technologies, leaving a free press and freedom of speech as "the last great American export." Among other causes, he attributes the decline in US commerce to psychological factors (notably, a growing sense of entitlement on the part of a spendthrift populace) and a deteriorating educational system. The author also charges that the increasingly ubiquitous medium of TV has fostered a sound-bite culture that trivializes political debate and effectively precludes "thoughtful civility of discourse." But beyond the implicit suggestion that America had best get a grip on itself, Halberstam makes no specific proposals for renewal of the nation's putatively flagging fortunes. State-of-the-union jottings that, while sporadically analytic, afford a less than coherent perspective, owing mainly to their limited focus and oddly enervated tone.
Pub Date: Feb. 20, 1990
ISBN: 0517098822
Page Count: -
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1990
The memoir of George Dawson, who learned to read when he was 98, places his life in the context of the entire 20th century in this inspiring, yet ultimately blighted, biography. Dawson begins his story with an emotional bang: his account of witnessing the lynching of a young African-American man falsely accused of rape. America’s racial caste system and his illiteracy emerge as the two biggest obstacles in Dawson’s life, but a full view of the man overcoming the obstacles remains oddly hidden. Travels to Ohio, Canada, and Mexico reveal little beyond Dawson’s restlessness, since nothing much happens to him during these wanderings. Similarly, the diverse activities he finds himself engaging in—bootlegging in St. Louis, breaking horses, attending cockfights—never really advance the reader’s understanding of the man. He calls himself a “ladies’ man” and hints at a score of exciting stories, but then describes only his decorous marriage. Despite the personal nature of this memoir, Dawson remains a strangely aloof figure, never quite inviting the reader to enter his world. In contrast to Dawson’s diffidence, however, Glaubman’s overbearing presence, as he repeatedly parades himself out to converse with Dawson, stifles any momentum the memoir might develop. Almost every chapter begins with Glaubman presenting Dawson with a newspaper clipping or historical fact and asking him to comment on it, despite the fact that Dawson often does not remember or never knew about the event in question. Exasperated readers may wonder whether Dawson’s life and his accomplishments, his passion for learning despite daunting obstacles, is the tale at hand, or whether the real issue is his recollections of Archduke Ferdinand. Dawson’s achievements are impressive and potentially exalting, but the gee-whiz nature of the tale degrades it to the status of yet another bowl of chicken soup for the soul, with a narrative frame as clunky as an old bone.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-375-50396-X
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
That sense of joy infuses these gentle essays. “Old age sits in a chair,” writes Hall, “writing a little and diminishing.”...
The writing life at age 85.
In this collection of 14 autobiographical essays, former U.S. Poet Laureate Hall (Christmas at Eagle Pond, 2012, etc.) reflects on aging, death, the craft of writing and his beloved landscape of New Hampshire. Debilitated by health problems that have affected his balance and ability to walk, the author sees his life physically compromised, and “the days have narrowed as they must. I live on one floor eating frozen dinners.” He waits for the mail; a physical therapist visits twice a week; and an assistant patiently attends to typing, computer searches and money matters. “In the past I was often advised to live in the moment,” he recalls. “Now what else can I do? Days are the same, generic and speedy….” Happily, he is still able to write, although not poetry. “As I grew older,” he writes, “poetry abandoned me….For a male poet, imagination and tongue-sweetness require a blast of hormones.” Writing in longhand, Hall revels in revising, a process that can entail more than 80 drafts. “Because of multiple drafts I have been accused of self-discipline. Really I am self-indulgent, I cherish revising so much.” These essays circle back on a few memories: the illness and death of his wife, the poet Jane Kenyon, which sent him into the depths of grief; childhood recollections of his visits to his grandparents’ New Hampshire farm, where he helped his grandfather with haying; grateful portraits of the four women who tend to him: his physical therapist, assistant, housekeeper and companion; and giving up tenure “for forty joyous years of freelance writing.”
That sense of joy infuses these gentle essays. “Old age sits in a chair,” writes Hall, “writing a little and diminishing.” For the author, writing has been, and continues to be, his passionate revenge against diminishing.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-0544287044
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
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