The causes of Goodman’s vitriol are indeed worrisome, but his countless repetitions grow wearisome.
A former CIA analyst (1966-1990) deplores what he argues is the increasing deleterious politicization of the agency.
In his latest book, Goodman—who has taught at the National War College, held other intelligence-related positions, and written earlier accounts of what he sees as a very troubled agency (Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA, 2008, etc.)—thoroughly rages against the corruption he has viewed in the highest ranks of the CIA. There are themes and incidents that he strikes repeatedly like clamorous gongs: President Harry Truman’s original vision of the CIA, the author’s 1991 appearance before a Congressional committee to oppose the appointment of Robert Gates as Director of the CIA, the defense of Edward Snowden, and the failures of the mainstream media to pay attention to the politicization of the agency. Goodman takes shots at pretty much everyone (save himself and his wife, who also served in the agency), including all the presidents since Truman, the media, and virtually all the CIA directors (save the ones in charge when he began in the 1960s). He continually administers severe hammer strokes to President George W. Bush and his team for the Iraq War and for the false/distorted intelligence they used to whip up public support. But the bone he simply cannot release bears the face of Gates. Repeatedly, he tells us that he and Gates were once friends and then follows with accounts of one egregious Gates deed/maneuver/lie after another. (Unfortunately, he repeats them often, sometimes with similar diction.) The author also savages Gates’ memoirs and returns constantly to the 1991 Congressional testimony. Over and over, we hear about Gates’ rise in the agency, which Goodman attributes to callous, unethical manipulations. The author does provide some useful inside information about other notable cases—Iran-Contra, Aldrich Ames, and the Patriot Act.
The causes of Goodman’s vitriol are indeed worrisome, but his countless repetitions grow wearisome.Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-87286-730-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: City Lights
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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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