A practical, motivational compendium on aging healthfully, gracefully, and as slowly as possible.
A scholarly how-to guide targets men eager to impede “the shipwreck of old age.”
Firmly believing that sexual aging in men “should be a priority of public healthcare,” European urologist and gerontology expert Debled has crafted an exhaustive debut manual. It is geared toward educating readers in what he believes to be the proven methodologies and therapies in delaying and preventing the aging of the male body. He writes that beginning at age 40, a majority of men begin to develop disorders such as tiredness, depression, inexplicable weight gain, hypertension, cardiovascular problems, and sexual regression. Debled directly attributes these potentially serious conditions to a naturally occurring phenomenon called andropause, which causes a pathologic fall in the production of dihydrotestosterone, the hormone responsible for male sexual vitality and function. With a sense of urgency and backed by a wealth of supporting medical information, the author delivers his verdict that andropause, though largely unacknowledged, is responsible for sexual aging in men and a contributor to a host of other related diseases. As a chief researcher of this gerontological condition for many decades, Debled fortifies his book with pertinent clinical facts, background data, and professional opinions that provide a firm case for the use of the synthetic steroid mesterolone as a defense against the progressive, systemic deterioration of the aging male. Accessible explanatory opening chapters describe the role of testosterone (“the hormone of long life”) within the male body and the side effects of hormone deficiency–causing andropause as men typically approach their fourth decade. The author dutifully incorporates photographs, charts, medical illustrations, diagrams, and a great amount of historical and current statistical data to further reinforce his assessment that a consistent supply of free-flowing hormones is the key to healthy male longevity. “Causes of aging are the main source of discomfort,” he writes. “They must be the subject of special attention.” Debled repeatedly gives due consideration to his own urological medical practice, where he has been prescribing hormone replacement therapy to aging patients for decades and has seen great restorative success in their “physical, psychic, and sexual activity.” While eye-opening sections on the maladies older men face—including premature sexual aging and prostate cancer—are distressingly worrisome, the author vigorously promotes the use of revitalizing male hormone replacements and presents a firm, convincing argument for their clinical administration. Though clearly Debled’s primary focus is on the preservation of male vigor, his comprehensive book is not esoteric. Female readers may find some useful knowledge and food for thought buried within commentary on sustaining optimum health through the consistent monitoring of cholesterol, blood pressure, excess weight gain, and age-associated frailty. This kind of general medical information can serve as a universal reminder of the need for proactive health maintenance. Obviously, Debled’s prescription for restorative wellness is not the definitive answer to agelessness. But he offers illuminating advice and a surfeit of information that men of a certain age in particular should certainly appreciate and perhaps act on.
A practical, motivational compendium on aging healthfully, gracefully, and as slowly as possible.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5355-9014-3
Page Count: 264
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Startling, at times pretentious in its self-regard, but ultimately breathtaking: The Lost Weekend for the under-25 set.
Frey’s lacerating, intimate debut chronicles his recovery from multiple addictions with adrenal rage and sprawling prose.
After ten years of alcoholism and three years of crack addiction, the 23-year-old author awakens from a blackout aboard a Chicago-bound airplane, “covered with a colorful mixture of spit, snot, urine, vomit and blood.” While intoxicated, he learns, he had fallen from a fire escape and damaged his teeth and face. His family persuades him to enter a Minnesota clinic, described as “the oldest Residential Drug and Alcohol Facility in the World.” Frey’s enormous alcohol habit, combined with his use of “Cocaine . . . Pills, acid, mushrooms, meth, PCP and glue,” make this a very rough ride, with the DTs quickly setting in: “The bugs crawl onto my skin and they start biting me and I try to kill them.” Frey captures with often discomforting acuity the daily grind and painful reacquaintance with human sensation that occur in long-term detox; for example, he must undergo reconstructive dental surgery without anesthetic, an ordeal rendered in excruciating detail. Very gradually, he confronts the “demons” that compelled him towards epic chemical abuse, although it takes him longer to recognize his own culpability in self-destructive acts. He effectively portrays the volatile yet loyal relationships of people in recovery as he forms bonds with a damaged young woman, an addicted mobster, and an alcoholic judge. Although he rejects the familiar 12-step program of AA, he finds strength in the principles of Taoism and (somewhat to his surprise) in the unflinching support of family, friends, and therapists, who help him avoid a relapse. Our acerbic narrator conveys urgency and youthful spirit with an angry, clinical tone and some initially off-putting prose tics—irregular paragraph breaks, unpunctuated dialogue, scattered capitalization, few commas—that ultimately create striking accruals of verisimilitude and plausible human portraits.
Startling, at times pretentious in its self-regard, but ultimately breathtaking: The Lost Weekend for the under-25 set.Pub Date: April 15, 2003
ISBN: 0-385-50775-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
BOOK TO SCREEN
4 Book Adaptations to Check Out In December
Essential for fans and the definitive celebration of a show that made history by knowing the rules and breaking every one of...
Everything you ever wanted to know about America’s favorite Mafia serial—and then some.
New York magazine TV critic Seitz (Mad Men Carousel: The Complete Critical Companion, 2015, etc.) and Rolling Stone TV critic Sepinwall (Breaking Bad 101: The Complete Critical Companion, 2017, etc.) gather a decade’s worth of their smart, lively writing about New Jersey’s most infamous crime family. As they note, The Sopranos was first shot in 1997, helmed by master storyteller David Chase, of Northern Exposure and Rockford Files renown, who unveiled his creation at an odd time in which Robert De Niro had just appeared in a film about a Mafioso in therapy. The pilot was “a hybrid slapstick comedy, domestic sitcom, and crime thriller, with dabs of ’70s American New Wave grit. It is high and low art, vulgar and sophisticated.” It barely hinted at what was to come, a classic of darkness and cynicism starring James Gandolfini, an actor “obscure enough that, coupled with the titanic force of his performance, it was easy to view him as always having been Tony Soprano.” Put Gandolfini together with one of the best ensembles and writing crews ever assembled, and it’s small wonder that the show is still remembered, discussed, and considered a classic. Seitz and Sepinwall occasionally go too Freudian (“Tony is a human turd, shat out by a mother who treats her son like shit”), though sometimes to apposite effect: Readers aren’t likely to look at an egg the same way ever again. The authors’ interviews with Chase are endlessly illuminating, though we still won’t ever know what really happened to the Soprano family on that fateful evening in 2007. “It’s not something you just watch,” they write. “It’s something you grapple with, accept, resist, accept again, resist again, then resolve to live with”—which, they add, is “absolutely in character for this show.”
Essential for fans and the definitive celebration of a show that made history by knowing the rules and breaking every one of them.Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3494-6
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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