A heartfelt testimony to the power of service, strength and faith.
A peripatetic but touching spiritual autobiography by a believer with a divine destiny.
Mack’s life hangs together along a string of near-death experiences and divine missions. And these two pieces—the near-misses and the missions—are closely related, because he believes that since his birth, God has had a plan for him. Mack, a “Eurasian-American” with Japanese roots, is raised the only child of a single mother in Hawaii in the years following the Pearl Harbor bombing. A rabble-rouser as a child, he nonetheless finds his discipline and his drive in high school and eventually channels that energy into a long military career that begins in the ROTC at UCLA. Though it relates much of his adolescence and his later years, the memoir’s central narrative focuses on Mack’s time in the military. He completes his Ranger training in Georgia, cuts his teeth in Germany and fights in Southeast Asia during the hottest years of the Vietnam War. His exemplary service earns him a promotion to the rank of full colonel by the age of 41. Mack’s army career is the beating heart of his memoir, and he provides a bracing, honest portrait of military life, full of the valuable details that only an experienced veteran can provide. Throughout all the years of fighting, God watches over Mack, preserving and protecting him, preparing him for a peace-time career as an advocate for the handicapped and a supporter of growing churches. He tells his life story—from toddlerhood to graying age—with an unselfconscious humility that gives his tales a homey charm, and his memoir is eminently readable from start to finish. At times, his autobiography feels a bit too homespun, and some of his narratives trail off into odd non sequiturs. But even this meandering makes up part of the book’s undeniable charm.
A heartfelt testimony to the power of service, strength and faith.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2011
ISBN: 978-1466258327
Page Count: 116
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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