An engaging account of life as a major-league hustler, notable for its lack of modesty––false or otherwise.
An ingratiating and candid (to the point of bluntness) apologia from Donald Trump, 41, the brash Wunderkind of Manhattan real estate.
Actions speak louder than words, but developer Trump prefers to take no chances that readers will miss important points in recounting the many achievements and few setbacks of his remarkable career. Taking charge of the family firm in 1973, the author converted it from a solid if stolid builder/manager of working-class apartment houses in New York's outer boroughs into a flashy, high-profile organization that controls such choice urban properties as Fifth Avenue's Trump Tower and the Grand Hyatt (née Commodore) Hotel. His closely held corporation, which owns three Atlantic City casinos, also plans to erect the world's tallest building on a 75-acre site near the Big Apple's Lincoln Center. Paradoxically perhaps, Trump's most celebrated triumph was the expeditious rehabilitation of a municipal skating rink on which New York City unavailingly spent seven years and millions of dollars. The imaginative, competitive, and opportunistic Trump offers little specific counsel on wheeling and dealing, letting vivid briefings on major undertakings speak mostly for themselves. On the evidence of the text, however, patience, persistence, promotional flair, and painstaking attention to detail rank among the key elements in his accomplishments. With stops along the way to commend allies like brother Robert, wife Ivana, and top aides, and to settle scores (with New York City Mayor Ed Koch, the NFL's Pete Rozelle, et al.), Trump offers insights as well as intelligence on what it takes to succeed in big business. If he's not always consistent––e.g., characterizing Barron Hilton as a member of the "Lucky Sperm Club"––Trump manages to make a persuasive, frequently charming case for himself and his varied enterprises.
An engaging account of life as a major-league hustler, notable for its lack of modesty––false or otherwise. (There are eight pages of photographs (not seen)Pub Date: Dec. 14, 1987
ISBN: 978-0-394-55528-7
Page Count: 246
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1987
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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