Richly detailed and documented, if not the final word.
Why would the likes of Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and other literary lights of 18th-century England devote their talents to vilifying (along with the popular press) a “cranky old lady”?
First-time English author Field acknowledges joining what one of the duchess’s many previous biographers has called a “moth-like tribe,” aiming to produce a balanced, or at least less distorted, account of a life made fascinating by the power it wielded and confronted. It seems that in her time, Sarah Churchill (1660–1744), who with her war-hero husband founded the Churchill-Spencer dynasties, exerted more influence on national politics and policies, amassed more personal wealth, and made more enemies than any Englishwoman since Queen Elizabeth I. She did it, the author recounts, the old-fashioned way. Both Sarah (née Jennings) and husband-to-be John Churchill were thrust early into the court patronage system by which British gentry aimed to improve their standings and fortunes. But while John went off to save the Holy Roman Empire by force of arms, Sarah conquered the royal inner sanctum, becoming a confidant of Princess Anne, younger daughter of James II. Field ably follows Sarah through an era of turmoil, with the Whigs hell-bent on preserving a Protestant line of succession and out to scourge Tory Catholics. With Anne’s coronation in 1702, Sarah had the royal ear and used it effectively to advance Whig issues while her husband, embarrassingly, retained Tory tendencies. Then came the famous fall from grace. The Queen’s affections bordered on the unnatural and, at least according to Sarah herself, were unrequited; it may actually have been otherwise, the author allows, quoting numerous sources on the possibility of a physical relationship. Spurned in favor of a new favorite, Sarah played the lesbian card, threatening blackmail in correspondence with the queen, and the Marlboroughs were dismissed from court in 1710.
Richly detailed and documented, if not the final word.Pub Date: July 23, 2003
ISBN: 0-312-31466-3
Page Count: 576
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2003
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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