An engaging, albeit imbalanced, discussion of the psychology and application of trust building.
Author of four previous books, poet and positive psychologist Meehan (Hall Ways to Success and Significance, 2014, etc.) explores the origins and meanings of two promises that have guided his life work as an organizational relationship consultant.
Born in the same Liverpool hospital and in the same year as Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, the author of this semi-autobiography relates the stories of his early aversion to violence as well as the various mentors who guided him. Almost by chance, Meehan discovered the two guiding principles, the two mantras (“I mean you no harm” and “I seek your greatest good”), that so perfectly encapsulate his deep, abiding interest in building trusting relationships, which is the focus of his book. Meehan’s encounter and subsequent deep professional relationship with Dr. William Hall—a positive psychologist and developer of highly structured organizational interviewing techniques—changed the author’s life. Meehan joined Hall’s firm, Talent Plus, in Lincoln, Nebraska. “Bill invested in relationships as intensely as financial brokers invest in shares on the stock exchange,” he writes of Hall’s preoccupation with building solid bonds of trust with others. The book then explores relationship building through RSVP, an acronym Meehan developed to show the importance of developing strong personal relationships, investing in strengths, allowing vision and virtue to guide one’s actions, and adopting a positive approach to experience. Meehan then examines the meaning of trust in the context of the two sentences that comprise the book’s title. While this shifting organizational landscape may seem to impose structural challenges, the author proves adept at applying various approaches to his central theme. His interest in Aristotle, the Stoics, and other philosophers enriches the discussion. A fairly strong writer, Meehan ends his exploration with a number of his poems—an unfortunate choice. Cloyingly saccharine, the rhymed verse detracts from the earnest exposition established in earlier sections: “Continue to live your life for many years more. / You’ll live to be a hundred—that’s for sure! / And please remember while you do, / John, Jim, Stephen and Margaret will always love you.”
An engaging, albeit imbalanced, discussion of the psychology and application of trust building.Pub Date: April 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4917-6149-6
Page Count: 216
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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