A sprawling survey of death practices around the world; a companion volume to a forthcoming PBS series. As the garish subtitle (lifted from a ride at a Buddhist death-oriented theme park in Taiwan) reveals, Palmer—a filmmaker, playwright, and broadcaster—tackles his subject with a heavy dose of irreverence. Death, he points out, permeates popular culture these days, from the Grateful Dead to resurrection motifs in Spielberg films. In fact, Palmer discovers, it's the rage across the globe. In England, he meets John Litten, an expert on funerals (``the funeral itself should be the knot on the bow of life''); in Ghana, he interviews Nana Adu, a fetish priest who casts lethal curses; and Australia turns up ``The White Ladies,'' a team of pretty female embalmers, while Ireland produces a man who both deals out and dodges death, a Sinn Fein terrorist. Most of Palmer's death-tripping takes place in America: He signs on to a tour of famous Hollywood death spots; pokes around a cryonic facility in California, where the corpses (``deanimated,'' not dead, insist the firm's owners) are stored in liquid nitrogen while awaiting resuscitation; wheels through a drive-in funeral parlor in Florida. Tempering all this weirdness are conversations with families that have lost children; with doctors working on longevity (one takes 83 pills a day); and with dwellers in a bullet-ridden urban ghetto. Palmer's patter, fast and flip (``cryonics...is available to anybody with the money and the circulatory system to handle it''), falters only near the end, when he turns moralist to editorialize in defense of Jack Kevorkian and assisted suicides. A scrapbook of tidbits rather than a thought-out narrative; still, an enjoyable scamper through undiscovered country. (Eight pages of b&w photographs—not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250802-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1993
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
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.
Four decades after Watergate shook America, journalist Woodward (The Price of Politics, 2012, etc.) returns to the scandal to profile Alexander Butterfield, the Richard Nixon aide who revealed the existence of the Oval Office tapes and effectively toppled the presidency.
Of all the candidates to work in the White House, Butterfield was a bizarre choice. He was an Air Force colonel and wanted to serve in Vietnam. By happenstance, his colleague H.R. Haldeman helped Butterfield land a job in the Nixon administration. For three years, Butterfield worked closely with the president, taking on high-level tasks and even supervising the installation of Nixon’s infamous recording system. The writing here is pure Woodward: a visual, dialogue-heavy, blow-by-blow account of Butterfield’s tenure. The author uses his long interviews with Butterfield to re-create detailed scenes, which reveal the petty power plays of America’s most powerful men. Yet the book is a surprisingly funny read. Butterfield is passive, sensitive, and dutiful, the very opposite of Nixon, who lets loose a constant stream of curses, insults, and nonsensical bluster. Years later, Butterfield seems conflicted about his role in such an eccentric presidency. “I’m not trying to be a Boy Scout and tell you I did it because it was the right thing to do,” Butterfield concedes. It is curious to see Woodward revisit an affair that now feels distantly historical, but the author does his best to make the story feel urgent and suspenseful. When Butterfield admitted to the Senate Select Committee that he knew about the listening devices, he felt its significance. “It seemed to Butterfield there was absolute silence and no one moved,” writes Woodward. “They were still and quiet as if they were witnessing a hinge of history slowly swinging open….It was as if a bare 10,000 volt cable was running through the room, and suddenly everyone touched it at once.”
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1644-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2015
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