by Nancy Barton Carter Clough ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 2015
A congested but nevertheless in-depth investigation of an overlooked war and the types of people drawn to it.
From debut author Clough comes a historical biography of an American’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War.
Born in New Hampshire to a prominent family, Barton Carter seems to have had a happy childhood of New England excursions, good schooling, and genial family relations—“His parents and siblings adored him, and they knew they could always depend on him, regardless of the circumstances.” After attending Williams College and securing a job at “a conservative investment bank and private equities firm” in London, one might think Carter would have settled down to a comfortable life abroad. After a visit to Spain, however, he finds a country in a state of upheaval. It’s 1936, and the Spanish Civil War is escalating. Journeying to Barcelona, where various anti-Fascist groups seem in high spirits, Carter notes that “practically every other man was a militiaman.” He finds that “in just two weeks, the people of Spain had transformed him.” Beginning with a job driving a truck for the nonpolitical National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief, the book follows Carter’s involvement with his new calling and the many atrocities of war that surround him. But, as his sympathy for the Republican cause increases, how long will he resist the role of a combatant? At its best when detailing the heavy fighting of the later days of the war, Carter’s quest takes on a bleak quality that illustrates the eventual hopelessness of the cause. Likewise, later chapters detailing the author’s own quest to tell Carter’s story are full of intrigue, not the least of which involves a visit to a medium. Forced dialogue—“Hello. I’m Bart Carter. I’m from America and am working as a truck driver for the NJC”—may cause attention to wander in early portions. The payoff, however, is a standout tale of a brave young man’s determination to participate in history, no matter how sad the eventual conclusion.
A congested but nevertheless in-depth investigation of an overlooked war and the types of people drawn to it.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4917-6518-0
Page Count: 816
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 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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by Jon Krakauer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1996
A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...
The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).
Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-42850-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
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