An engrossing discussion of the limits of modern science and the virtues of ancient spirituality.
A debut work that combines a memoir with a philosophical essay attempts to reconcile the findings of modern physics with an appreciation of the spiritual dimension of life.
Neil B. Feldman was fascinated by science at an early age, drawn to radios, which made him feel “tuned in on a mysterious and powerful force connecting the world.” That nascent interest eventually blossomed into an intense engagement with contemporary physics. One of the highlights of this volume is the exceedingly accessible synopsis he furnishes of Einstein’s principal scientific achievements, including the theory of relativity. But for the author, quantum theory turned out to be as disconcerting as it was illuminating, since it seemed to imply that the phenomenal world as humans experienced it was ultimately chimerical, and that the impressions delivered by their senses were deceptive. In the ancient lessons of Advaita Vedanta, in particular the teachings of Swami Vivekananda, Feldman discovered a spiritual way to amend the notion that life was but a dream, one that he believed did not dismiss the demands of reason at large or the tenets of physics in particular: “And Vivekananda’s answer did not seem to me to contradict science or reason. On the contrary, by speaking about levels of consciousness as one key behind sense perception, he shed a whole new light on how we experience the world ‘out there.’ ” In consistently limpid prose, the author explains how the key is a certain understanding of consciousness, both an elemental feature of the cosmos and a “real factor in the actual creation of reality."
Feldman succumbed to cancer in 2015 before the volume’s completion—it was finally finished by Judy Scott Feldman, his wife, and Anna E. Feldman, his daughter, based on interviews with the author. This is announced in the first line of the work, which gives the remainder a poignant and even haunting quality, maybe even more so since the book eschews any maudlin sentimentality. The quest to craft a philosophical détente between science and spirituality is an urgent one, presented with impressive meticulousness and rigor, especially for a man who once took their exclusivity for granted. The criticisms of the stubborn limits of science are thoughtfully articulated: “Mainstream physics, however, has for the most part set consciousness aside, and has taken the mysteries of gravity, inertia, and electricity for granted. Why don’t scientists insist on examining what we take for granted?” Still, despite the admirable attempts at painstaking argument, scientific skeptics are unlikely to be convinced by this slim volume; in particular, the contention that the precepts of Advaita Vedanta never contradict, but rather transcend reason is never made sufficiently clear. In addition, the work simply assumes that one cannot simultaneously accept the conclusions of quantum theory and a more phenomenologically intuitive interpretation of lived experience. Finally, the discussion of morality is the analytically weakest part of the book, partly because the explication of the Judeo-Christian tradition is so thoroughly reductive. Nevertheless, the work as a whole is both intellectually stimulating and moving.
An engrossing discussion of the limits of modern science and the virtues of ancient spirituality.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlantic senior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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