Wisdom that spans time and place, from an author perfectly suited to dispense it.
A dairy-farmer-turned-successful-entrepreneur writes to his descendants about lessons learned in life and business.
Krebs has a deep appreciation for the teachings of his ancestors. Time-tested on harsh Wisconsin farms, these dictums guided him from the barn to the boardroom, their wisdom never wavering whether the project at hand was a stroll through a junkyard or the leadership of a corporate team. Filled with inimitable advice on teamwork, problem solving and loyalty, Krebs’ book ably relates how working on a threshing crew or as part of a barn raising informs a successful voyage in all facets of life—and is actually more illuminating than what can be learned at corporate seminars. He breaks his chapters down into sections with practical headings such as “Always Dress for the Job,” “The Need for a Positive Outcome Creates Courage” and “Americans Should Buy American.” Toward the end of the text, in the midst of a touching final chapter, the central metaphor of the book is defined—a barn is a place of shelter and comfort, but the real reward is not the barn itself, rather it’s the lessons and relationships that are forged in the building process. The simple, self-effacing text and the lessons gleaned from his relatives and from his career as a communications entrepreneur amount to a love letter to his family, past and future (superficially aimed at general readers, Krebs acknowledges that his book is truly intended for his grandchildren and their children). Thus, this book may not appeal to all readers, particularly those who have no interest in 19th and 20th century farming practices. But for Krebs’ descendants, it will be a wonderful treat from a thoughtful relative.
Wisdom that spans time and place, from an author perfectly suited to dispense it.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2010
ISBN: 978-1456380960
Page Count: 238
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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