An even-keeled evaluation of an important American band—a must for Phishheads, even though they probably know most of the...
The first biography of the undisputed king of modern jambands.
Founded in 1983 in Burlington, Vt., Phish spent years honing their chops and developing explosive live performances, which differed completely from night to night, before they entered the national radar in the early ’90s. Former Rolling Stone contributor Puterbaugh (co-author: Rhino’s Psychedelic Trip, 2000, etc.), who has covered Phish on and off since 1995, is quick to note the importance of the band to the live-music landscape of the past 25 years. “I firmly believe that they are one of the great American bands,” he writes, “and not just jam bands.” The author begins with a well-executed framing chapter that traces the band’s legendary festivals, from Ian’s Farm in 1987, to the forward-thinking Clifford Ball in 1996, to the disastrous mudfest at Coventry in 2004. In chronological fashion, Puterbaugh follows the band’s progress from a high-energy bar band to a consistently entertaining arena band that drew more than 80,000 fans to the swamps of Florida for Big Cypress in 1999-2000. He also discusses the many changes in the band’s playing over the years, focusing on how the group’s dynamic jamming has evolved as they have ventured into larger arenas and outdoor amphitheaters. The author ably sketches each band member’s distinct personality—from the alpha-dog exuberance of guitarist and de facto frontman Trey Anastasio to the quirky genius of bassist Mike Gordon—and digs up many intriguing stories behind the band’s storied career. Puterbaugh doesn’t shy from the negative events in the band’s history—including Anastasio’s arrest for narcotics in 2006—but his respect and admiration for his subjects is clear. The portrait that emerges shows a uniquely gifted collection of omnivorous musicians who understand the necessity of group collaboration and the near-infinite possibilities of the stage. Also included is an illuminating 2009 interview with Anastasio, conducted amid the band’s triumphant return, and a full list of Phish’s studio recordings and official live releases.
An even-keeled evaluation of an important American band—a must for Phishheads, even though they probably know most of the stories already.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-306-81484-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Da Capo
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2009
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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
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