A sentimental, introspective travel memoir.
A man sails along America’s east coast on a journey of self-discovery and spiritual insight in this debut memoir.
At 63, Merck had the sort of contented existence many hope for in the final third of their lives: He’d had a successful career, owned a home that he was deeply connected to, and had developed a mindfulness that kept him remarkably self-aware. Yet this very awareness alerted him to a great, inner discontent, which caused him to undertake a journey to become more engaged with the world. He left his old life behind to sail along the country’s eastern shore, exploring both the sea and his autocratic nature while grappling with his fear of loneliness. Along the way, he was joined by other sailors, but it was the presence of his son, Evan, and Merck’s fiery, infuriating love interest, Samantha, that finally forced him to face his emotional pain and spiritual restlessness. This memoir, grandiose in tone, invokes a classical sentimentality that values feelings over experiences, and, as such, emphasizes the author’s personal feelings over the people and places around him. However, when the book looks beyond its narrator, the dialogue is strong, and although it doesn’t greatly expound upon many characters, it captures Evan and Samantha well. There are occasional forays into the author’s life before the age of 60, but the book puts great emphasis on the physical act of traveling—on always going somewhere—which gives the story a feeling of forward momentum. The memoir doesn’t come to a solid conclusion, a fact perhaps foreshadowed in the words of a minister early in the book: “We put a lot of care and love into how we begin...the exit door comes without the same amount of thoughtfulness.” This is forgivable, however, as Merck seems to be only getting a handle on these new ideas himself. Overall, the book will likely leave many readers wanting to sail with him just a bit longer.
A sentimental, introspective travel memoir.Pub Date: July 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-1770974432
Page Count: 232
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Oct. 3, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Naughty good fun from an impossibly sardonic rogue, quickly rising to Twainian stature.
The undisputed champion of the self-conscious and the self-deprecating returns with yet more autobiographical gems from his apparently inexhaustible cache (Naked, 1997, etc.).
Sedaris at first mines what may be the most idiosyncratic, if innocuous, childhood since the McCourt clan. Here is father Lou, who’s propositioned, via phone, by married family friend Mrs. Midland (“Oh, Lou. It just feels so good to . . . talk to someone who really . . . understands”). Only years later is it divulged that “Mrs. Midland” was impersonated by Lou’s 12-year-old daughter Amy. (Lou, to the prankster’s relief, always politely declined Mrs. Midland’s overtures.) Meanwhile, Mrs. Sedaris—soon after she’s put a beloved sick cat to sleep—is terrorized by bogus reports of a “miraculous new cure for feline leukemia,” all orchestrated by her bitter children. Brilliant evildoing in this family is not unique to the author. Sedaris (also an essayist on National Public Radio) approaches comic preeminence as he details his futile attempts, as an adult, to learn the French language. Having moved to Paris, he enrolls in French class and struggles endlessly with the logic in assigning inanimate objects a gender (“Why refer to Lady Flesh Wound or Good Sir Dishrag when these things could never live up to all that their sex implied?”). After months of this, Sedaris finds that the first French-spoken sentiment he’s fully understood has been directed to him by his sadistic teacher: “Every day spent with you is like having a cesarean section.” Among these misadventures, Sedaris catalogs his many bugaboos: the cigarette ban in New York restaurants (“I’m always searching the menu in hope that some courageous young chef has finally recognized tobacco as a vegetable”); the appending of company Web addresses to television commercials (“Who really wants to know more about Procter & Gamble?”); and a scatological dilemma that would likely remain taboo in most households.
Naughty good fun from an impossibly sardonic rogue, quickly rising to Twainian stature.Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-316-77772-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
PERSPECTIVES
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
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