A heartfelt and candid compilation that stumbles in its execution.
Former medical researcher Kuhnert presents a debut collection of memories and musings.
In an introduction, the author shares that some of his reasons for writing these vignettes were to heal emotional wounds and entertain people. These goals certainly underlie many of these essays, most of which span just a handful of pages. The book is separated into five thematic parts: “Family Events,” “Pastimes,” “Science,” “Good Men,” and “Inspiration.” Kuhnert’s recollections are wide-ranging, from the heartbreak of a stillborn grandchild in “Baby Boy Schroeter” to a harrowing forest encounter in “Yikes! A Bear! Now What?” to the wise words of a high school math teacher in “Are You With Us Today?” Personal photos pepper the collection; one of a snowy house decorated for Christmas brings warmth to Kuhnert’s thoughts on the holiday, while an image of a forest stripped bare for construction underlines his outrage at a destructive neighbor. The author’s tone is conversational and straightforward, and many essays read like journals or a chat by the fire. He can be quite funny, as when he notes that his wife “decided to add a machete to her Christmas wish list…not exactly a typical gift”—until he explains that she’s a biologist with a vendetta against invasive plant species. The strongest essays focus on family and emotional connections: An exhausting vacation with young grandsons ends in a sweet moment; Kuhnert’s temperamental first car, a 1961 Volkswagen Beetle, leads him to an important piece of his future. Some missteps occur, though; for instance, an essay about the 1970 shootings at Kent State feels jarringly impersonal and out of place in the “Family Events” section. Other essays feel directionless, such as a contemplation of possible asteroid collisions or a play-by-play of a picture-perfect golfing day. The collection as a whole similarly meanders and might have been stronger had Kuhnert chosen a cohesive theme. Although the book shines when tackling relatable subjects, such as grief and the joys of nature, it feels most likely to appeal to those who already know the author well.
A heartfelt and candid compilation that stumbles in its execution.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-578-85916-3
Page Count: 121
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The stormy career of a top Navy SEAL hotspur. Commander Marcinko, USN Ret., recently served time at Petersburg Federal Prison for conspiracy to defraud the Navy by overcharging for specialized equipment—the result, he says, of telling off too many admirals. It seems that his ornery and joyous aggression, nurtured by a Czech grandfather in a flinty Pennsylvania mining town, has brought him to grief in peace and to brilliance in war. Serving his first tour in Vietnam in 1966 as an enlisted SEAL expert in underwater demolition, Marcinko returned for a second tour as an officer leading a commando squad he had trained. Here, his accounts of riverine warfare—creeping underwater to Vietcong boats and slipping over their gunwales; raiding VC island strongholds in the South China Sea; steaming up to the Cambodian border to tempt the VC across and being overrun- -are galvanic, detailed, and told with a true craftsman's love. What did he think of the Vietcong? ``The bastards—they were good.'' His battle philosophy? ``...kill my enemy before he has a chance to kill me....Never did I give Charlie an even break.'' After the aborted desert rescue of US hostages in the Tehran embassy, Marcinko was ordered to create SEAL Team Six—a counterterrorist unit with worldwide maritime responsibilities. In 1983, the unit was deployed to Beirut to test the security of the US embassy there. Easily evading the embassy security detail, sleeping Lebanese guards, and the Marines, the SEALs planted enough fake bombs to level the building. When Marcinko spoke to ``a senior American official'' about the problem, the SEAL's blunt security advice was rejected, particularly in respect to car-bomb attacks. Ninety days later, 63 people in the embassy compound were killed by a suicide bomber driving a TNT-filled truck. Profane and asking no quarter: the real nitty-gritty, bloody and authentic. (Eight-page photo insert—not seen.)
Pub Date: March 2, 1992
ISBN: 0-671-70390-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1992
Great fun.
The second installment of childhood recollections (after Opposite the Cross Keys, 1988) by mystery writer S.T. Haymon, who here evokes a sheltered 12-year-old's further encounters with life's earthier side.
Haymon's 1920's, upper-middle-class childhood revolved typically around school, home, loyal servants, and a pair of doting, well-educated parents—until age 12, when her father died and her mother decided to move to London. Refusing to accompany her, the precocious, comically self-confident Sylvia tried to limit this series of upheavals by insisting on remaining in Norfolk in the care of a favorite teacher—except that at the last minute her headmistress (already a sworn enemy) switched houses, arranging for two maiden schoolteachers to put Sylvia up in their house instead. Sylvia knew that the Misses Gosse and Locke were eccentric. What she didn't know was that the skinny, aggressive history teacher and the teary, puppy-like math professor were lesbians. Nor did she notice as Miss Locke's increasingly desperate infatuation with her began to lead the entire household toward destruction. Amusing characters abound—the gardener, Sylvia's only ally, whose faith in the value of a virgin's tips on the horse races led him to pay her for advice; the dour housekeeper who sang opera and downed bottles of gin; the art teacher's model who bewildered Sylvia with talk of "randy old dykes"; and the spiritual channel who informed her that her daddy was watching everything she did from heaven. Haymon's depiction of herself as an unusually clever, frequently petulant, and thoroughly practical young girl obsessed with filling her stomach while all sorts of passionate fireworks exploded around her evokes an era when secrets still existed and scandals were bursting to happen—and makes for slyly humorous, very British entertainment.
Great fun.Pub Date: Dec. 14, 1990
ISBN: 312-04986-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
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