The exuberant, worldly-wise autobiography of a Washington/Wall Street insider who thrived despite the hard blows life has dealt him on more than one occasion. A product of Brooklyn, Garment (who turned 72 in May) does not recall his comfortable childhood with any particular fondness. Indeed, he left home early to pursue a career as a clarinet/saxophone player in jazz bands. Released from the WW II army for medical reasons within weeks of induction, Garment turned his back on music and earned a law degree; his academic record was good enough to land him a coveted job with the Waspy Manhattan firm of Mudge, Stern, Williams, and Tucker. A partner by the time Richard Nixon joined the fold in 1963, the self-styled ``ethnic icebreaker'' soon became a close friend of the former vice president's. An important member of the team that helped put him in the White House, Garment became an all-purpose troubleshooter for Nixon. The tough-talking administration's informal envoy to both US Jewry and Israel, Garment (who characterizes his ex-boss as operationally progressive but rhetorically retrogressive on social issues) also worked on civil-rights programs. Garment was untainted by Watergate, on which he comments with perception and compassion. He eventually returned to New York City. With time out to serve as Daniel Patrick Moynihan's special assistant for human rights during his stint as US ambassador to the UN, he resumed the practice of law. While personal tragedies (including the suicide of his first wife) took a toll, the resilient Garment bounced back. Happily remarried, with a new young daughter to raise, the globe-trotting attorney is again ensconced in Washington with a world-class clientele. The engaging, often ingratiating, recollections of a free- spirited agent and advocate who has learned a lot from his varied experiences close to the seats of power. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour)
Pub Date: March 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-8129-2887-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Times/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1997
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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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