A well-researched, historically contextualized biography.
A compelling look at a fierce competitor who died at a young age.
Leon Patterson still remains a legend in certain athletic circles over 60 years after he succumbed to kidney disease. Born into a family of migrant farmworkers from Arkansas, he reportedly began performing manual farm labor at the age of 6, which influenced his cultural attitudes, educational background, and physical prowess. An all-around gifted athlete, he eventually focused his considerable energies on mastering the discus and shot put. When co-author Gerald Haslam (In Thought and Action, 2011, etc.) was a freshman in 1952, he participated in a track meet in which, he says, Leon became “the first high school athlete to put the 12-pound shot over 60 feet in competition.” As he reveals in the afterword, this connection led to his own sporadic interest in Leon’s story over many decades and, ultimately, his desire to present a full, nuanced portrait of this larger-than-life figure. Together with his wife and co-author, Janice, he ably shapes a wide range of source material into a coherent narrative. The trump card here is their access to an unpublished memoir by Dixie Kenney, a girl who captured Leon’s attention and became his biggest supporter. As a girlfriend, wife, training partner of sorts, mother, co-worker, and widow, this is her story as much as it is his, and her perspective is invaluable. The authors write in a largely unadorned style but occasionally employ evocative language, as in a description of the Kern County landscape: “Terrain becomes sloping and hilly there, looking most of the year like the tan, muscular shoulders of resting cougars.” California has attracted many waves of economic migration, spurred by the gold rush, agriculture, railroads, and urban manufacturing; in this case, the Patterson family became part of the oil industry, a milieu with its own set of cultural trappings. Thus, as the subtitle suggests, Haslam presents not just an inspirational tale of personal determination, but also the history of a particular region—one that even longtime residents and admirers of the Golden State may not know.
A well-researched, historically contextualized biography.Pub Date: June 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0915685264
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Devil Mountain Books
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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