Lovell packs in as many celebrities as possible, which makes for an entertaining book but not one likely to end up on a...
Lovell (The Churchills: In Love and War, 2011, etc.) turns her attention to the French Riviera between the wars and into the 1960s.
Like the author’s tale of the Mitford family, this is a gossipy book with courtesans and famous politicians hopping from château to château and bed to bed. Though British wealth ruled the 1920s and ’30s, after World War II, the Americans and Europeans took over. Within this glamorous milieu, one always needed money, but breeding, talent, beauty, sociability, and a good sense of humor were also very important. The author anchors the story with a biography of American actress and businesswoman Maxine Elliott (1868-1940), a grande dame of the scene. Though she is relatively unknown today, Elliott amassed a fortune—with helpful advice from J.P. Morgan—and built the much-visited villa the Château de l’Horizon in 1932. Invitations to her events were always highly sought-after, and she gave parties from morning to night. Winston Churchill, in his wilderness years, found sanctuary with her in his own suite of rooms to accommodate his staff. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, at loose ends after WWII, depended on Elliott for privacy and a safe haven. The list of guests is endless and includes Daisy Fellowes, Doris Castlerosse, and Lady Diana Cooper, ladies well-versed in enjoying the moment. The postwar years without Elliott made it a sunny place for shady people, until it was sold to Aly Khan, whose fascinating best friends were Elsie de Wolfe and the incomparable Elsa Maxwell. It was Maxwell who introduced Khan to Rita Hayworth, which led to the wedding of the century. As the rich and famous built larger and flashier homes along the Riviera, the days of Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward gave way to visits by the Kennedy family, Onassis family, and other high-profile guests.
Lovell packs in as many celebrities as possible, which makes for an entertaining book but not one likely to end up on a reference shelf.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68177-515-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
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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