The heartwarming story of a writer’s discovery that the aging process—and life in general—can be tragic and wondrous, all at...
A touching debut memoir about a middle-aged woman charged with caring for both her aging father and her two growing children.
Sullivan’s story begins at a time when she was in a particularly tough spot: her mother had died, her father had suffered a stroke, and her husband had filed for divorce. Rather than wallow in grief or self-pity, the author decided to do something that just felt good, so she moved from Indiana to sunny Anna Maria Island, Florida, where her parents had owned a beach cottage for decades. The idea seemed like an idyllic escape and a flawless plan—except for the fact that her father, who needed constant care, wanted to go with her, and her Indiana-based siblings wouldn’t hear of it. But Sullivan decided to go anyway, packing up her kids and her dad and heading to the Gulf of Mexico. The memoir tracks her subsequent adventures in Florida, where she lived through hurricanes, floods, and plenty of long-distance spats with siblings. It also chronicles the slow decline of her father, who later suffered from dementia and cancer. Overall, Sullivan’s book is a tender tribute to a man she regarded as a kind father and beloved grandparent. It also provides a moving picture of the ways that the family made their ailing patriarch’s final years adventurous and fun, such as by taking a family vacation to Ireland. The author deftly examines the drama of complicated family dynamics and provides an accurate picture of what it’s like to be a member of the so-called “sandwich generation,” caring for both children and parents. One of the strongest aspects of Sullivan’s memoir is the way she beautifully describes caring for a parent with dementia: “His senility was like water rushing through my fingers; I couldn’t grab hold of it, understand it, manage it at all….[T]he dementia came and went without an itinerary. We just had to follow along and do the best we could.”
The heartwarming story of a writer’s discovery that the aging process—and life in general—can be tragic and wondrous, all at once.Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-940442-12-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Walrus Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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