Well-researched and engaging.
The life of the eminent naval hero that focuses on the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death as well as his military accomplishments.
As depicted by naval historian de Kay (The Rebel Raiders, 2002, etc.), Stephen Decatur (1779–1820) seemed destined for greatness at an early age. His father spent the Revolutionary War hunting down English merchant vessels, and Stephen earned his own glory in a navy very different from the service today. In the early-19th century, much of an officer’s income came from his share of property seized from the enemy, who in those days tended to speak French. Decatur distinguished himself by battling Arabs who spoke Italian, and he gave the young republican navy a resounding motto when an Algerian admiral asked him “Dove andate?” (“Where are you going?”), to which he replied, “Dove mi piace!” (“Where I please!”). Decatur’s initial course took him in the path of an older officer named James Barron, who at first was an important ally and friend; “in later years,” de Kay writes, “Decatur would freely admit that he had once revered Barron as his own father.” But the younger man’s reverential attitude disappeared when, in 1807, Barron struck his colors before an attacking English vessel without firing a shot. The attack, one of many incidents that helped precipitate war with England five years later, cost Commodore Barron his command, and Decatur served on the court that sentenced his onetime friend to a five-year suspension from the service. Protesting his innocence, Barron waited out his suspension as a merchant skipper in Denmark, then returned and requested reinstatement. Decatur, now a member of the Board of Naval Commissioners, outspokenly opposed this, and in response Barron challenged him to a duel—an act engineered by a third party, de Kay suggests—that cost Decatur his life.
Well-researched and engaging.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2004
ISBN: 0-7432-4245-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK REVIEW
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