by Fred Harris ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2008
Harris’s down-home, unaffected, gee-gosh style makes him a likable storyteller.
The former Oklahoma senator turned novelist (Following the Harvest, 2004, etc.) recounts his populist rags-to-riches story from Depression-era hay baler to presidential contender.
Harris learned early on how to persevere against daunting odds. He hailed from a family of sharecroppers who barely eked out a living in Walters, Okla., during the 1930s. His father was an errant cattle trader and alcoholic, his mother hardworking and self-taught. Young Harris applied himself at the local schools and working odd jobs. Easygoing and popular, he was elected to the student council, won the state Future Farmers of America oratorical contest and decided on a law career. As a senior in high school he met LaDonna Crawford, who’d just moved into town after being raised on a farm by her Comanche grandparents. They were married a year later and soon had a baby daughter. Harris moved quickly through Oklahoma University College of Law on various scholarships and became active in the school’s league of young Democrats. When a seat opened unexpectedly in 1956, he ran for state senator and won at age 25. Six years later he ran unsuccessfully for governor, but when Senator Robert S. Kerr died unexpectedly, he moved into that seat with the endorsement of Kerr’s family and President Johnson, whose support and friendship carried him far in Washington. In 1967, when riots rocked the country, Harris headed Johnson’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. He grew increasingly critical of the Vietnam War, joined Walter Mondale to co-chair Hubert Humphrey’s campaign for president, but also became close to Robert Kennedy. Harris describes himself as “radicalized” by the time he ran for president in 1972 and again in ’76, which may explain why his campaigns quickly ran out of money. Now living in New Mexico, remarried after his divorce from LaDonna in 1982, teaching at UNM and writing books, he remains involved in the various Democratic campaigns, ever trusting in life’s serendipity.
Harris’s down-home, unaffected, gee-gosh style makes him a likable storyteller.Pub Date: April 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8061-3913-5
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Univ. of Oklahoma
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2008
Share your opinion of this book
More by Fred Harris
BOOK REVIEW
by Fred Harris
BOOK REVIEW
by Fred Harris
by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 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
Share your opinion of this book
by Jon Krakauer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1996
A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...
The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).
Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-42850-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
Share your opinion of this book
More by Jon Krakauer
BOOK REVIEW
by Jon Krakauer
BOOK REVIEW
by Jon Krakauer
BOOK REVIEW
by Jon Krakauer
More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.