No amount of scholarly work is likely to raise McNutt in the public consciousness, but it’s not for want of trying in this...
Sturdy biography of a political stalwart of the past, largely forgotten now.
Paul McNutt (1891-1955), writes Kotlowski (History/Salisbury Univ.; Nixon's Civil Rights: Politics, Principle, and Policy, 2002, etc.), was a politician through and through; he “embodied change and continuity,” a neat trick, and he managed to upset conservatives and liberals alike in his various guides as governor, federal administrator and New Deal proponent. Moreover, he was one of those now-fabled politicos who worked both sides of the aisle, not just in order to solidify power and win favor, but also because bipartisanship was the right thing to do. One of the many virtues of Kotlowski’s book is that it covers the necessary ground—a challenge, given McNutt’s many careers and accomplishments—yielding a book that is overlong but not unnecessarily padded. Another of its virtues is that it demonstrates ably that though McNutt indeed lived in a different time, with his heyday in the 1930s, it was most certainly not a more innocent one: If FDR played McNutt hard in several Machiavellian episodes, McNutt returned the favor by working his own political machine to his advantage. In doing so, he managed to alienate FDR further, all but guaranteeing that Henry Wallace would appear on the ticket, even though Wallace was considered “too liberal and idealistic in his politics, eclectic in his intellectual pursuits, and standoffish in his manners.” Another little-known aspect of McNutt’s work involved his efforts, while working as high commissioner in the Philippines, to secure the safe passage of many hundreds of Jews from Nazi Germany. Kotlowski also considers his subject’s contributions in many other venues, including his service as dean of the Indiana University School of Law.
No amount of scholarly work is likely to raise McNutt in the public consciousness, but it’s not for want of trying in this capable, readable biography.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-253-01468-9
Page Count: 600
Publisher: Indiana Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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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