A deeply affecting, surprisingly unsentimental description of surviving–and transcending–a tumultuous upbringing.
A well-crafted and poignant memoir about a chaotic childhood in the Bronx.
Eschewing sappiness in favor of sparse but vivid prose, McSherry (Bronx Astronomy, 1991) documents his first few decades with four siblings, very little money and two parents whose respective mental illnesses intensified as the years progress. The narrative unfolds in short chapters of brief, almost photographic scenes that are grouped into thematic phases of the author’s life. Part I focuses on McSherry’s early childhood, during which his fervently Catholic mother struggles to keep the family afloat in the face of her husband’s escalating alcoholism and periodic disappearances. In the midst of a life filled with relocations, food stamps and absent parents, the young James dreams of becoming an actor, a priest and finally, a poet. The author’s sense of pacing is exquisite: Not until Part II do we–along with the teenage James–come to grasp the fact that his mother’s quirks indicate her slide into dementia. Similarly, as James learns the circumstances surrounding his father’s violent death, the reader simultaneously realizes the severity of his degradation. The penultimate section of the book reveals the final unraveling of his tenuous family networks as he reaches his early 20s. Here, McSherry’s detached style becomes a bit too extreme–after 100 engrossing pages, the author’s inner world suddenly seems opaque–but the final section offers redemption. The author combines flashbacks with a quietly moving account of the end of his mother’s life, highlighting her distinctive virtues and resurrecting the reader’s faith in his pathos. Although his story is certainly unique, McSherry’s book has much to say about the nobility and struggle that characterize every individual life.
A deeply affecting, surprisingly unsentimental description of surviving–and transcending–a tumultuous upbringing.Pub Date: July 19, 2004
ISBN: 0-595-32271-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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
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