Louis Horst was a musician, conductor, and composer who, through his work with Martha Graham and other pioneers, profoundly affected the development of American modern dance. Here, Soares (Dance/Barnard College), formerly Horst's assistant, offers a carefully chronicled, well-documented account of his life and work. Born in 1884 of German immigrants, Horst was strongly encouraged by his father, himself a musician, to pursue a career in music. Self-supporting as a musician from his teens on, Horst began playing for the Denishawn dancers in 1915—a job that set his life's direction. It was here that he met Graham, and here that he began to consider the relationship between music and dance. By 1925, when Horst left Denishawn to study composition in Vienna, he had a basic philosophy: When dance and music are wed, ``both arts must sacrifice too much at times.'' How the two arts might better serve each other was Horst's concern when, after a year in Europe, he reunited with Graham (their relationship was emotional and physical as well as collegial). Together, they began to alter the world of dance, music, and the relationship between the two. It is no overstatement to say that Graham's work was born of this collaboration. Soares recounts in detail the ensuing, fruitful years, during which Horst accompanied Graham and her cohorts in choreography, teaching, and performing—and at an astounding pace. Graham's marriage to Erick Hawkins eventually brought a sharp rift between the dancer and the musician, but Horst continued to work at a breakneck pace with other choreographers. He died in 1964. Working with full access to Horst's diaries and other sources, Soares does scholarly justice to her material. Readers may miss some of the passion that was a hallmark of this era and of Graham's life and associations (conveyed so well by Agnes de Mille in Martha, 1991), but, still, this is a worthwhile account of an important figure. (Thirty-two b&w photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: June 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-8223-1226-3
Page Count: 251
Publisher: Duke Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1992
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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