A readable and in-depth look at how sins of the past can live on, and how one can confront them.
A study of how emotional dysfunction can take on a generational aspect.
“If we really want to respect the generations gone by,” writes licensed counselorBirkemeier in this work of nonfiction that melds genealogy and personal psychology, “we must learn from them, and if possible, grow beyond them.” In a long process of “dismantling the dysfunction” of her past, the author sought to untangle the effects of lies and distortions; for example, she found out only later in life that her mother gave her up for adoption, took her back, and then gave her up for adoption a second time. She also notes that her memories contain gaps because she may have been “drunk, high or maybe both my entire high school career.” She gradually adopted a mantra that would guide her later research: “Breaking cycles. Slaying shame. Finding freedom.” In these pages, Birkemeier looks back at her own family tree—specifically, at ancestors’ toxic behaviors and how their stories carry into later generations, allowing “layers of dysfunction to grow.” The author breaks these lessons into small segments and follows each with a moment for reader reflection that begins with the greeting “Dear Friend” (“it is here we should pause and discuss something important”). Birkemeier employs a fast-paced and engagingly straightforward style as she tells stories from her childhood and young adulthood, and this creates a low-stress atmosphere that’s welcoming to readers dealing with difficult family memories. The author also frequently explains biochemical aspects of trauma, noting, as when she notes that the hyperstimulation of the amygdala can leave it permanently “in the ‘on’ position,” causing one to sense danger everywhere; these give her personal reflections even greater heft. The end result is an intriguing study of the legacy of emotional baggage, ultimately cast in a tone of optimism: “You don’t know what you don’t know until you know it,” she writes. “Then, when you know, you must do something with it.”
A readable and in-depth look at how sins of the past can live on, and how one can confront them.Pub Date: March 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73-295452-6
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Out Loud Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.
Avuncular observations on matters historical from the late popularizer of the past.
McCullough made a fine career of storytelling his way through past events and the great men (and occasional woman) of long-ago American history. In that regard, to say nothing of his eschewing modern technology in favor of the typewriter (“I love the way the bell rings every time I swing the carriage lever”), he might be thought of as belonging to a past age himself. In this set of occasional pieces, including various speeches and genial essays on what to read and how to write, he strikes a strong tone as an old-fashioned moralist: “Indifference to history isn’t just ignorant, it’s rude,” he thunders. “It’s a form of ingratitude.” There are some charming reminiscences in here. One concerns cajoling his way into a meeting with Arthur Schlesinger in order to pitch a speech to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy: Where Richard Nixon “has no character and no convictions,” he opined, Kennedy “is appealing to our best instincts.” McCullough allows that it wasn’t the strongest of ideas, but Schlesinger told him to write up a speech anyway, and when it got to Kennedy, “he gave a speech in which there was one paragraph that had once sentence written by me.” Some of McCullough’s appreciations here are of writers who are not much read these days, such as Herman Wouk and Paul Horgan; a long piece concerns a president who’s been largely lost in the shuffle too, Harry Truman, whose decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan McCullough defends. At his best here, McCullough uses history as a way to orient thinking about the present, and with luck to good ends: “I am a short-range pessimist and a long-range optimist. I sincerely believe that we may be on the way to a very different and far better time.”
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781668098998
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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