A biography that captures Elizabeth’s endearing personality but dwells on her too speculatively. Fans of royal biographies will welcome Mager’s dramatic tale of the tragic life of Elizabeth (a.k.a. Ella), granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Hessian princess, elder sister of Empress Alexandra of Russia, and in her own right a Russian grand duchess. He considers the wide-reaching web of royal connections throughout Europe at the turn of the century. Mager begins his tale with the story of Elizabeth’s mother, Alice, whose religious spirit, strength of character, and commitment to others, he argues, Elizabeth inherited. We see how, surrounded by death, war, and personal loss since childhood (her mother and several siblings perished), Elizabeth grew into the woman who remained devoted to her husband despite a hollow marriage and, after his assassination, dedicated her life to Russian Orthodoxy; she became a nun. Finally arrested by the Bolsheviks, Elizabeth was thrown into a mineshaft to a gruesome death and later canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. To add to the drama, Mager pays close attention to relations between Elizabeth and the Russian empress, dramatically presenting the former’s role as a go-between in Alexandra and Nicholas II’s courtship; less successfully, Elizabeth tried to distance her sister from the devious faith-healer and political meddler Rasputin. Mager gets into trouble, though, when the biography veers too far into the “what if” school. Annoyingly, he argues that had Elizabeth married her cousin Willy, the future kaiser of Germany, WWI might have been averted, and that if she had not urged on the marriage of Alexandra and Nicholas (Mager claims she wanted a relative with her in Russia), the Russian Revolution might not have occurred. Interesting story, but the amateur historian’s interpretations too often don’t match the evidence. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-7867-0509-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1998
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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