A quirky and at times humerus read for the serious cat enthusiast.
Autobiographical story of a woman who finds magic in her inner voice and hope from her relationships with cats.
Given the whimsical title, the reader might anticipate that Duncan’s debut novel was a children's book, or an imaginative fairy tale. However, the novel opens with Duncan’s disclosure of the mental, emotional, and sometimes physical abuse she sustained from her adopted father. Duncan’s breezy mention of her tumultuous childhood and the abuse her parents also both experienced as children is unsettling. Duncan’s father moved the family from California to Ireland, to free his daughters from the influences of American 1960s drug culture. At school, Duncan’s emotional pain was further compounded by bullying from peers. Without the ability to physically escape the circumstances of her own life, young Duncan retreats into her own imagination. Duncan’s internal life intensifies when she begins hearing voices, guiding and instructing her actions. Eventually she begins acting out the voices’ instructions. Rather than exploring why Duncan is hearing voices, Duncan’s grandmother tells her she has “the gift." Luckily the voices advise Duncan to join the school band, where she is welcomed by her peers. One day walking home from band practice, Duncan finds a seemingly neglected kitten. Duncan takes him home to join the family's six other cats. Unfortunately the kitten disappears into the night. However, Duncan quickly finds another neglected cat to direct her affections towards. Duncan is able to bond with her tyrannical father over their mutual adoration of cats. A long succession of cats provide Duncan with the affection and validation that her interpersonal relationships lack. In turn, Duncan sees it as her duty to care for all cats that come into her life. Each chapter, named in honor of a particular cat, reveals how Duncan’s relationships with cats complements her human relationships. Changes occur in Duncan’s family relationships, romantic relationships, and career. However, Duncan’s positive relationship with cats is a constant. Overall the writing is clear and sophisticated. However, an overabundance of cat stories overshadow Duncan’s sometimes insightful reflection on the complexity of human relationships.
A quirky and at times humerus read for the serious cat enthusiast.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2013
ISBN: 978-1490324395
Page Count: 244
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2013
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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