The noted German theologian and preacher (190886) looks back over his experiences and involvement in his country's 20th-century upheavals. Author of many books dealing with faith and ethics, Thielicke (The Waiting Father, not reviewed, etc.) was the son of a puritanical mother and a highly imaginative, emotional father. Surviving the famine and chaos following Germany's defeat in WW I, he was drawn to theology because it addressed life's eternal questions. Thielicke's own faith only came into focus, however, after a brush with death following surgery. He pursued his doctoral studies under the famous Zen scholar Eugen Herrigel, then served as professor of theology at Heidelberg until his dismissal by the Nazis in 1940, after which he worked as a pastor in the Swabian countryside. Although Thielicke made his opposition to the regime clear, he managed to evade arrest, and thousands flocked to his sermons in Stuttgart, where he spoke compellingly of the ultimate questions of life, death, and faith amidst the Allied bombings. After the war, he served as rector at the University of TÅbingen and subsequently founded the faculty of theology at Hamburg. Ironically, his academic career ended during the student revolts of the 1960s, which he saw as employing the same tactics as the Nazis had used earlier; he devoted his final years to writing and lecturing. Thielicke's many anecdotes (some of them hilarious) deal with simple peasants, students, famous political figures such as Konrad Adenauer, and theologians Karl Barth, Romano Guardini, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This book, written in 1983, contains observations that are always thoughtful and incisive, whether Thielicke is speaking about German complacency with the Third Reich or giving his penetrating impressions of American life and religion. He emerges as a lovable man of great integrity. A humane testament of an eventful life, recounted with depth and humor.
Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-55778-708-5
Page Count: 448
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
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