Stewart’s lively character sketches employ sprightly prose and impeccable research.
A fond portrait of the mild-mannered Virginian and implacable advocate for the young American government.
Historian and novelist Stewart (The Lincoln Deception, 2013, etc.) offers a pertinent lesson on Madison’s ability to forge working bonds with other founding members of the new American government, even if they did not always see eye to eye. Discreet, generous and nonegotistical, unlike others who hammered out the documents that framed the new government, Madison refused to take credit, rather conceding the “work of many hands and many heads” in the forging of the Constitution. Small and soft-spoken, he was overshadowed by the more dynamic personalities of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Monroe, yet the complement of their respective qualities resulted in brilliant working relationships during the course of Madison’s political career. Hamilton and Madison, both in their 30s, recognized that the Articles of Confederation were inadequate for managing the new nation and had to be replaced by a stronger national government. Their energy as “impatient young men” galvanized the other delegates in Philadelphia over “framing a system which we wish to last for ages,” while their dozens of newspaper essays (written with John Jay) explaining the Constitutional structure became the incomparable work of political theory, The Federalist Papers. Madison cleverly used the power and prestige of Gen. Washington in consolidating attendance at the Convention and winning votes for the Bill of Rights, and the two largely struck the deal to build a new capital on the Potomac. In Jefferson, Madison found an intellectual kindred spirit and lifelong friend. Monroe served in Jefferson’s and Madison’s administrations and navigated the Louisiana Purchase and renewed hostility with Britain. Finally, the woman and helpmate Madison found late in life, Dolley, evolved into a winning “Lady Presidentess” and devoted caretaker in his dotage at Montpelier.
Stewart’s lively character sketches employ sprightly prose and impeccable research.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1451688580
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
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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