A fascinating account of one man’s life that succeeds as history book and as a meaningful read.
A compelling collection of memories that capture a long-gone time.
“Every story must have a beginning, but not necessarily an end—or rather not the end I’ve got in mind.” So begins Bates’ memoir, which champions hard work and tenacity. Starting with his birth in a humble house in South Australia, Bates lived along the same lines: unassuming and simple, valuing a stretched dollar. His boyhood in the 1930s and ’40s was marked by setting bonfires and snatching birds’ eggs from nests, innocent scrapes that bespeak a simpler time. As he grew into adolescence, his interest in his family’s church grew as well, and at 16, he became a deacon of the church, representing his fellow youth. As Bates busied himself with his responsibilities to the church and his tennis playing, he also began to consider what future career he might pursue; he decided that, like his older brother, he too wanted to become a marine engineer. An apprenticeship paved the way for Bates to prepare for his career and also allowed him to earn wages to assist his struggling parents as the aftermath of Australia’s economic depression wore on. But Bates’ young-adult life was not only spent working: He took up boxing and dated Ruth, who would eventually become his wife. Bates and Ruth went on to raise three sons together, the center of their lives as Bates continued to work at being an engineer. Told with candor and exacting detail, Bates’ memoir reads more like a novel as it engagingly weaves together the lives of his family and friends. Though not preachy, Bates’ message rings loudly throughout the work; achievement comes from effort, and family is more important than any monetary success. Bates’ dedication to his work and family serves as an inspiration in this modern age, as well as a meaningful tale of one man’s triumph in his deceptively complex life.
A fascinating account of one man’s life that succeeds as history book and as a meaningful read.Pub Date: July 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-1499013511
Page Count: 594
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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