An overstuffed but genuinely heartfelt diary of a love that stood the test of time.
A gay man exhaustively recaps the time shared with his life partner of 44 years.
The youngest of seven closely-knit siblings raised on a family dairy farm in New York State, Briggs begins his memoir by describing a strict upbringing, time in art school, a stint in the priesthood and, finally, life in Manhattan. Cameron, an outspoken, frequently sarcastic New England boarding school graduate, discovered his calling in New York City fashion design classes. Though both men had voracious sexual appetites for random “pursuits and conquests,” when they met in 1965, Cameron appeared pensive and reluctant, scarred from a brutal rape scenario a week prior (on Briggs’ birthday no less). Still, love blossomed quickly. Briggs takes obvious delight in recounting the next four and a half decades of what he believes to be their “predetermined future,” as the author became successful in the direct-mail advertising world—a career that would relocate them to San Francisco. A consistent globetrotter with his partner, Briggs evokes the meticulous details of their seemingly endless, sex-filled European romps—made more palatable and scandalous by the negotiated “opening” of their relationship. He also recalls startling first impressions of historic events such as the Jonestown massacre and the assassinations of Robert and John Kennedy. Internal strife, a surfeit of extramarital dalliances, a lung cancer diagnosis and crippling health maladies strained the relationship back in New York City, but also unified the pair. When Cameron became crippled with Alzheimer’s disease, a devastated but indefatigable Briggs became his caretaker until Cameron’s death in 2009. The journey both men shared is a rarity by contemporary standards—countless years brimming with adventure, promise, heartbreak, compromise and true adoration. Briggs says, “There were times we were rich. There were times we were poor; times of great struggle and times of great extravagance; times of great sadness and times of great happiness. There were times of great anguish, anger, pain, confusion, suffering and conflict. There were times of immense elation and phenomenal times of joy, but there was never a time when we experienced monotony.” And by the conclusion of this 700-plus page opus, his sentiment is made vibrantly clear.
An overstuffed but genuinely heartfelt diary of a love that stood the test of time.Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2010
ISBN: 978-1452055978
Page Count: 724
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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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