A clearly written biography crammed full of memorable anecdotes about each of the Kennedys through four generations, about...
A convincing argument that Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921-2009), the fifth of nine Kennedy children, changed the world in ways at least as significant as her more-famous relatives.
Pulitzer Prize–winning former Boston Globe journalist McNamara (Director, Journalism/Brandeis Univ.; Breakdown: Sex, Suicide, and the Harvard Psychiatrist, 1994, etc.) makes a compelling case that Eunice Kennedy’s primary crusade, on behalf of millions of citizens with cognitive disabilities, succeeded greatly as a civil rights movement, altering lives for the better not only for the disabled, but also for their families. Eunice received inspiration for the crusade from her parents’ treatment of daughter Rosemary, a cognitively disabled girl—and later, woman—hidden away in asylums, forced to undergo a lobotomy, and lied about to the public to protect the burnished Kennedy family image. The powerful and ruthless Kennedy patriarch, Joseph P., made the major decisions regarding Rosemary, and Joseph’s wife, Rose, gave in to her husband. McNamara demonstrates, however, that Eunice, John F., Robert, and all the other Kennedy siblings were complicit in the heartless treatment and public charade. Riddled by guilt and driven to accomplish her reform goals, Eunice influenced JFK to push Congress for legislation to improve the treatment of the cognitively disabled and fund research into causes and cures. That legislation won approval in 1963, shortly before the president’s assassination. In 1962, Eunice created Camp Shriver, which eventually became the Special Olympics in 1968. In each chapter, the author amply spotlights the formidable nature of Eunice, who refused to accept no for an answer when she spearheaded a crusade. In fact, McNamara learned, the word most often used to describe Eunice was “formidable.”
A clearly written biography crammed full of memorable anecdotes about each of the Kennedys through four generations, about Eunice’s influential husband, Sargent Shriver, and about dozens more characters from domestic politics, international diplomacy, and high society.Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4516-4226-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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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