An amazing story and an absorbing read for racing buffs, but those interested in the psychology of this singular athlete...
Seabiscuit meets Reds.
Jimmy Winkfield’s life was so rich in incident, set against such a vivid tapestry of world-shaking events, that his failure to emerge from his own story as a compelling character seems like a cruel irony. New York Times writer Drape (The Race for the Triple Crown, 2001) has marshaled impressive research and a clear passion for the history of horse racing to tell the remarkable story of Winkfield, who, born one of 17 children to poor black sharecroppers in 1882, went on to win the Kentucky Derby in two consecutive years, become the toast of Moscow (where he was dubbed “The Black Maestro”), fled the Russian Revolution and later, in Paris, the Nazis. The events of Winkfield’s incredible history never fail to captivate—his participation in a drive to save the finest horses of Moscow from the advancing Red Army screams for the Hollywood treatment—but the man himself remains distant, distinguished only by his ambition and uncanny, almost telepathic ability to read horses. Winkfield paid dearly for his single-minded focus, repeatedly sacrificing his family for his zeal to win races; on the other hand, perhaps this tunnel vision accounts for the man’s ability to persist in the face of racism and devastating reversals. Drape compensates for the essential opaqueness of his protagonist with authoritative accounts of the establishment of fabled racetracks such as Belmont and the Louisville Jockey Club, descriptions of Winkfield’s colorful European patrons and a nuanced analysis of the social and cultural realities that the peripatetic jockey faced in America, Russia, Austria and France. But ultimately, Winkfield’s story fails to satisfy the requirements of a hero’s journey; in Drape’s narrative, he seems, despite his great talent, to be a man without qualities, someone to whom things happen, a Zelig on horseback.
An amazing story and an absorbing read for racing buffs, but those interested in the psychology of this singular athlete will be disappointed.Pub Date: April 25, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-053729-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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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