Gonzales travels where few people might want to go, and he brings back wondrous tales. This is more diffuse than his...
Journalist and novelist Gonzales (Lucy, 2010) gathers scattered essays that speak to his current interest as an observer of the human capacity to endure.
The author has expressed that interest in books such as Deep Survival (2003) and Surviving Survival (2012), which make one wonder how our species has lasted as long as it has. “In a sense,” he writes, “my career as a writer has been a long quest for…authenticity. And these essays are a product of that quest.” In the opening essay, Gonzales turns his attention to the federal prison at Marion, Ill., a place that will make readers wonder how anyone survives incarceration—especially among the criminals who are tucked away for safekeeping in this “modern-day replacement for Alcatraz.” It might be enough to lament the fate of those whom society has condemned, but Gonzales digs deeper, making it clear that there is good reason for such facilities but also noting a takeaway: Act tough enough without actually killing or maiming someone, and “the guards finally back off and leave you alone.” That’s good to know, just as it’s good to know how to navigate one’s way around another kind of prison, a mental hospital, which lends Gonzales a poignant closing image: that of inmates “standing in the rain, trying to figure out the right thing to do.” In between, Gonzales visits impenetrable swamps, tightrope walkers, oil rigs, airplane landing strips on the edge of the Arctic Ocean and his own family history—including that adventure that no one wants to have: a bout with cancer.
Gonzales travels where few people might want to go, and he brings back wondrous tales. This is more diffuse than his previous books, but it will be a pleasure for his admirers.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-55728-999-5
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Univ. of Arkansas
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2013
A rags to riches story which would benefit from more heart and less science.
In a straightforward autobiography, Hirschorn recalls his journey from a childhood in 1930s Berlin to building a multinational corporation that helped make the world a less noisy place.
Born in Berlin in 1921 to a working class Jewish family, even as a child Hirschorn helped his parents at their respective jobs. Things changed when the Nazis came to power. By 1937, his parents had sent him to the relative safety of school in England. As World War II raged, the author managed to earn an engineering degree. In 1947, he joined his aunt in America and found some fame in engineering circles through a paper on designing an equipment silencer. He used this as a springboard to start his company, Industrial Acoustics Company, out of his aunt’s fourth-floor walk-up–he quickly found a need for his specific brand of expertise in postwar America. The author’s story is the quintessential immigrant’s tale–he arrived in America with nothing and turned himself into a captain of industry. Yet so much time is spent on the nitty-gritty of engineering and not enough on how Hirschorn became the man with a knack for silencing cacophony. The most thrilling part of the book should have been Hirschorn’s formative years in Nazi Germany and WWII England, but the writing is excessively matter-of-fact, robbing it of excitement. Even the excerpts from his actual journals, written when he was a young man, are somewhat sedate. However, the 70-year-old Hirschorn’s commentary on his younger self is intriguing. While the book can be impassive, the breadth of the author’s experience and knowledge is impressive.
A rags to riches story which would benefit from more heart and less science.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9769816-0-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
French culinary king Franey (A Chef's Tale, p. 189, etc.) teams up with Flaste once again in this companion book to Franey's new 26-week public television series. Amassed here are a selection of classic specialities from each of 20 major gastronomic areas of the country, with information on cheeses, desserts, and drinks and how these ingredients have influenced the development of cuisine in places from Normandy (famous for cream, Calvados, and apple cider) to the Loire Valley (known for freshwater fish like sandre and trout) to Gascony (a major foie gras producer). The authors offer excellent recipes for simple, peasant fare; popular bistro foods; and sophisticated restaurant dishes. Unfortunately, French regional often means lots of meat and cream, and while this makes for great taste in everything tested, from the rich scallops sauteed with leeks and saffron to the hearty sauerkraut with pork, no one can indulge in such heavy meals often. Although there are many lighter recipes in this good cookbook (which will, in all likelihood, become a food bible for Francophiles), it could have been even better with the inclusion of variations for reducing fat. Franey presents easy-to-follow instructions, and even for the most spectacular dishes the preparation is manageable, though often requiring several steps (one of which may be a sauce). Delicious—but just because Franey asserts that the French have avoided current low-fat standards without suffering in ``health or looks'' doesn't mean we all can. (50 photos, 15 in full color, 20 maps, not seen) (First printing 50,000; Book-of-the-Month Club's Homestyle Book Club alternate selection)
Pub Date: Aug. 30, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-43157-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
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