An excellent read for anyone who lived through that time, or readers interested in the history of abortion.
Physician Edelin recounts his famous abortion trial in this gripping memoir.
In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade, pro-life groups scrambled to skirt the Supreme Court ruling. One tactic employed by conservative district attorneys was to criminally charge doctors who performed abortions for their by-now legal operations. Though almost no one charged was indicted, latent racism and Catholic-dominated government made for a more dangerous environment in Boston. Edelin, a well-respected, black OB/GYN at Boston City Hospital, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Charged with manslaughter by conniving district attorney Newman Flanagan for a routine procedure, Edelin was indicted and formally tried in what was considered a test case for the future of women’s rights. Edelin sketches the circumstances splendidly, providing a brief history of abortion as well as giving background on Boston’s roiling social chaos in the early ’70s. The case itself–memorable to anyone who lived through that time period–constitutes the bulk of the book. The author reconstructs events not only from his memory but also from courtroom transcripts. For the most part, Edelin works with aplomb, though his insistence on phonetically representing Flanagan’s Boston accent becomes wearisome. He is less successful in his efforts to inject his personal life into the narrative. Descriptions of his marriage woes seem like afterthoughts, and the running theme of his mother’s death from cancer–his reason for wanting to be a doctor in the first place–while tragic, is not without melodrama. Wisely, though, Edelin largely focuses on the mockery of the trial itself, from the unfair jury-selection process–which resulted in a jury comprised of almost all white men–and obvious sympathetic leanings of the assigned judge, to the guilty verdict and its eventual overturn on appeal, creating a page-turning courtroom drama that would make Grisham proud.
An excellent read for anyone who lived through that time, or readers interested in the history of abortion.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-979-20600-9
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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