A well-researched, engagingly human portrait of this complex mid-20th-century political leader.
An absorbing reexamination of Harry Truman’s two-term presidency and the critical years during which he held office.
Much has been written about the 33rd president, whose esteem has increased over the several decades since he left office. His colorful story has become somewhat legendary: the self-educated man from rural Missouri who was thrust into a demanding leadership role following Franklin Roosevelt’s untimely death. Though largely unprepared, Truman rose to the many challenges that confronted him. Among dozens of others, these included the decision to drop the first atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II, the founding of the U.N. and creation of the NATO alliance, and the fateful decision to intervene in the conflict in Korea. Frank, a former senior editor at the New Yorker and author of Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage, is also an acclaimed novelist, and his storytelling skills add significantly to this well-documented account. While not quite a revisionist history—the author’s assessment remains mostly consistent with prior biographies, most notably David McCullough’s 1992 Pulitzer-winning Truman—the book provides further depth and nuance to the character dynamics of Truman and his administration, including sharp portraits of James F. Byrnes, George C. Marshall, Dean Acheson, and James Vincent Forrestal, “who was destined to become one of Truman’s unhappiest appointments.” Ultimately, Frank delivers a balanced yet appreciative portrait of a president who, despite his limitations and flaws, proved largely capable of meeting the extraordinary demands of his time. “If he could never replace the masterful Franklin Roosevelt,” writes the author, “he became someone, or something, else: a man, burdened by a persistent absence of foresight, whose policies nonetheless brought stability to an unsteady world….He understood, and cherished, the task he’d been handed, and if he did not always seem big enough for the job, no one could question the size of the decisions he made while he held it.”
A well-researched, engagingly human portrait of this complex mid-20th-century political leader.Pub Date: March 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5011-0289-9
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
