Absorbing but highly uneven.
A journalist struggles to balance the complications of love and family in a foreign land.
Greenwald (Scratching the Surface, 2008, etc.) recounts his experiences as a reporter in 1990s Kathmandu. After falling for a news photographer named Grace, the pair of Americans began reporting on political protests, which had broken out throughout the capital, while attempting to keep their personal problems at bay. Yet with the arrival of a letter from his depressed younger brother, the story veers from travel memoir into the psychological study of a young man wholly disconnected from his world. “Social intercourse, for Jordan, was a kind of mad experiment,” writes Greenwald, “and the human race supplied him with an ever-changing pool of subjects.” The author describes his brother as a “behaviorist Houdini,” though his bizarre behavior eventually resulted in his suicide. Two days prior to Jordan’s death, Greenwald left his girlfriend, job and Buddhist studies to support his brother in California. While the author’s interactions with Jordan are riveting, they are indicative of the author’s vacillation between narratives. More troubling is his admission that the book is “primarily a memoir, and partly a work of fiction.” This uncertainty undermines the validity of the story, causing the reader to question the author's credibility. The relationship between the brothers is often engaging, but the Nepalese backdrop feels like little more than a convenient locale. The heart of the book resides not in the political upheaval of Nepal, but rather in the emotional upheaval between two far-flung, distant brothers.
Absorbing but highly uneven.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58243-649-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Counterpoint
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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