Lyrical and practical by turns, an apt portrait of a haunting landscape along with an ample variety of scientific views on...
A look at the Pole and, not incidentally, global warming, through the eyes of the author, the scientists and enthusiasts she interviews, and the journals of Victorian-era polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen.
As if to defy the legions of pioneering explorers determined to conquer it, the North Pole is, in fact, an icy sea. In 2002, author Brown journeyed to this non-place aboard the Russian nuclear vessel Yamal, a specially designed "ice breaker" capable of creating a route through the permanently frozen crust of the northernmost latitudes. In each chapter, Brown offers scenes from the voyage: seeing a polar bear, breaking the ice, watching the numbers on the GPS as they come ever closer to 90 degrees. Despite the exotic location, the voyage was essentially a tourist trip, a mostly safe adventure for polar dreamers. Then, switching gears, the author presents selections from Nansen's Farthest North, the journals of the explorer's expedition, originally published in 1897. Nansen is a gifted writer, and the log of his time on the Pole, the brutal conditions, and his relationship with his companion and his dogs, are transportive and gain even more punch when contrasted with Brown's descriptions of the luxuries of the Yamal's nuclear power (long, hot showers, for example). The third element here is comprised of interviews with the people Brown encountered on her trip and experts in the field of polar research. Many of these discussions focus on global warming, specifically its undeniability and complexity. There is also plenty of information about the indigenous people, wildlife, polar history, and daily life today in the northernmost human settlements. Equally fascinating and evocative are Brown's many photos of the land, ice and sea.
Lyrical and practical by turns, an apt portrait of a haunting landscape along with an ample variety of scientific views on the climate and ecology.Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-891300-18-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
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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