A daughter's tender tribute to a remarkable mother.
Philanthropist and environmental activist Daly writes about her spiritual search as she shared her mother's courageous 4-year battle with the ravages of pancreatic cancer.
Before her diagnosis in 2006, the author's mother, Nancy Daly—former first lady of Los Angeles during her husband Dick Riordan's eight years as mayor—was a charismatic celebrity in her own right. She was a larger-than-life figure who was chair of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and a prominent activist on behalf of abused children. In her early 60s, she was “at the top of her game…a beautiful, happy, selfless and extremely well dressed woman, busy doing exciting things.” Though her mother took the diagnosis in stride, for the author, it was terrifying. After surgery and chemotherapy, the cancer went into remission and Nancy gamely resumed her normal schedule of activities despite a regimen of medications. In 2007, the cancer metastasized, and her health deteriorated rapidly. Nonetheless, she maintained an upbeat attitude, resuming chemotherapy and palliative treatment. Daly writes of her own struggle to master her fear and pain as she faced the reality of her mother's worsening condition and the need to overcome her continued psychological dependency on her. When it became clear that the cancer was spreading throughout her body, Nancy turned to alternative medicine and a Brazilian faith healer, John of God, in hopes of a cure. In a last-ditch effort, mother and daughter traveled across the country to meet the faith healer. Nancy died peacefully in the back seat of an RV during the journey back to Los Angeles. The author, a convert to Judaism with a profound connection to nature, writes movingly of her spiritual journey as she faced the need to establish an independent identity.
A daughter's tender tribute to a remarkable mother.Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-61902-117-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Counterpoint
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
