Affectionate, workmanlike, but disappointing biography of the woman aptly described by Roger Vadim as ``Eve before God lost his temper in the Garden of Eden.'' As much a sociological event as a movie star, Brigitte Bardot transformed modern notions of sex as a subject for movies and as a paradigm for existence. Her mentors, particularly director and first husband Vadim, certainly helped to create the Bardot phenomenon. But Robinson (Yamani, 1989, etc.) shows that the actress's fame arose primarily from the force of her stunning yet simple beauty and her complex yet innocent nature. Unfortunately, his unambitious book does little to elucidate her character. In fairly pedestrian prose, he covers Bardot's life from her birth in Paris in 1934 to her quiet existence today in St. Tropez and her controversial marriage to Bernard d'Ormale, who is associated with ultranationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen. Robinson delineates Bardot's wildly dichotomous personality, her naive narcissism, her many lovers and husbands, her heartfelt advocacy of animal rights, and the relentless harassment she endured from the media and fans alike. Most of the events described in the book are interesting. Some, such as the relentless publicity surrounding her pregnancy in 1959 (journalists even tried bribing doctors to let them into the delivery room), are horrifying. Yet all but the most avid fans will eventually find Robinson's narrative tedious and repetitious. What little analysis there is—a discussion of French women's use of sex as a weapon, the claim that Bardot was the unwitting forebear of the women's movement—proves fleeting and shallow. Similarly, the author provides no insight into Bardot's films, not even ones as famous as Vadim's And God Created Woman and Jean-Luc Godard's Masculin-FÇminin. Despite his best efforts to the contrary, Robinson leaves one feeling that perhaps there really is no more to Bardot than meets the eye. (photos, not seen)
Pub Date: June 5, 1995
ISBN: 1-55611-452-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Donald Fine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
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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