Gripping case histories of children caught in tangled forests of bureaucracy and dark caves of misunderstanding, by a a court-appointed child advocate. Employing the techniques of both fiction and docudrama, novelist Courter (The Midwife's Advice, 1992, etc.) recounts her experiences as a Guardian ad Litem, Florida's appellation for the person—often a volunteer, as she was—designated to represent the child's interests in cases of abuse and neglect. In most instances, the author was able to clear a path through the brambles, but it rarely led to a happily-ever-after ending. Lydia, for instance, was a teenager falsely accused of putting her sister in a microwave oven. Rejected by her mother and stepfather, she bounced from foster home to institution. Using the considerable powers accorded to a guardian, which include access to court, school, and even sealed psychological records, Courter was able to clear Lydia's name and ensure her stay with a foster family who had grown to love and respect her. The sexually abused Stevenson children were not so lucky. Courter put in hundreds of hours helping them prepare to testify against their father, but he went free. The author has changed names and identifying details in her accounts of these and other cases, but she does not disguise her dismay over bureaucratic bungling— often on the part of social service workers with too many cases and not enough resources. As she describes it here, the guardian program can often cut the red tape. Besides their investigative mandate, guardians can promise children confidentiality (unless a threat has been made) and present recommendations directly to presiding judges. Through these advocates, kids in trouble have a voice in court and some control over their lives. Forceful, unashamed recruitment for guardian programs—and powerful enough that it just might swell the ranks of volunteers.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-517-59541-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1994
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
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
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