A personal look at Williams syndrome, “a genetic fluke that strip[s] one in every 10,000 people of the inherent wariness, skepticism, and inhibition that [are] hardwired into the rest of us.”
In her debut, former Houston Chronicle reporter Latson combines the moving story of Gayle and her son Eli, a child with Williams, with scientific data on this rare genetic disorder. Characterized by an elfish appearance, sleeplessness, heart murmurs, sensitivity to sound, and cognitive and developmental difficulties, the biggest issue with Williams syndrome is that people who have it are overly friendly, too trusting, and unconditionally loving toward everyone, including strangers. For Gayle, this meant she was not able to let Eli out of her sight, for she never knew when he would head toward someone with open arms, wanting a hug or wanting to give a hug. Approximately 30,000 Americans have Williams syndrome, making it less common than Down syndrome or autism, but its effects on the parents and children are no less profound and life-changing. Latson shares Gayle’s story from the moments of Eli’s diagnosis and into his teen years. As a single mother, she struggles with raising Eli, trying to navigate the health care system, work, and finding places where Eli can be himself without causing disruptions. Attending a special camp helped Eli make new friends, but Gayle was unable to relax and enjoy herself. When Eli entered puberty, Gayle faced further obstacles, as Eli openly experienced sexual desire but was not fully aware of what that meant physically. Latson tells the story with great sympathy and eloquence, giving voice to the frustration, anguish, and despair a parent feels when their child struggles with a rare disorder.
A well-researched, perceptive exploration of a rare genetic disorder seen through the eyes of a mother and son.Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4767-7404-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS | PSYCHOLOGY
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The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | PSYCHOLOGY | HISTORICAL & MILITARY
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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
Categories: BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY
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