This tenderly rendered addition to the literature on hospice care deserves the widest possible audience.
A memoir that explores the tender mercies of hospice care.
In this intimate nonfiction account of her experiences as a hospice nurse, debut author McKissock tells bittersweet stories in which she and her patients are the central characters and her hard-earned wisdom about dying is the major theme. “In this country we think of dying primarily as a medical event. It’s much more than that,” she writes. The author supplies sufficient graphic detail to satisfy our fearful curiosity about the end-of-life symptoms referred to here as “actively dying.” She describes the specific pharmaceuticals that, we are told, can make dying as natural as “an uncomplicated birth.” Each chapter tells the story of a particular person—an internationally renowned ballet dancer, a wealthy art collector, a baby girl—whom she cared for during his or her final days. With an open-minded attitude toward the mysteries of life and death, the author has produced a memoir filled with surprises. The book celebrates hospice nurses, the best of whom act with kindness, efficiency and optimism, serving as calm “midwives” for the dying. As such, it restores luster to the somewhat tarnished reputation of the hospice industry, which began as a nonprofit movement but has since attracted big business and private equity investors seeking large profits. That financial story is not part of this personal narrative, which never lags as the experienced hospice nurse moves from one patient’s story to the next and reveals an inner life in which her own death is never far from her mind. It may be quibbling to point out that, in several instances, the author inadvertently repeats almost word for word a sentence she used elsewhere in the book, as when she describes a patient lifting a pinkie finger: “To a hospice nurse, that is like a big high-five.” The revelation that dying in hospice care can be an emotionally uplifting last chapter of life is one of many in the book.
This tenderly rendered addition to the literature on hospice care deserves the widest possible audience.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4675-3841
Page Count: -
Publisher: Gentle Wellness
Review Posted Online: Sept. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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