This putative examination of a homeless shelter for Vietnam veterans in Boston is actually an overheated, patronizing, stereotype-strewn portrayal of the ``plight of Vietnam veterans.'' In his first book, journalist Solotaroff examines the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans by looking at its founder, Ken Smith, and five severely disturbed clients. These include a suicidal, alcoholic ex-Marine who is tormented by what he did in Vietnam and is now fighting for the custody of his daughter; and an embittered, war-obsessed, former Army tank commander who ``loved his tour in Vietnam'' so much that he built a military-style bunker in his basement and stayed up nights in his backyard listening for the Viet Cong. Although the unique shelter's story deserves to be told, Solotaroff is the wrong chronicler. In an attempt to pay tribute to Vietnam veterans—for whom he once had ``contempt''—the author does them a great disservice by making wild generalizations based on interviews he conducted with several dozen emotionally scarred men. He claims that ``almost a million soldiers'' came back from Vietnam ``with the disastrous psychic affliction called post- traumatic stress disorder'' but neglects to mention that fewer than half that number still suffer from the disorder. In Solotaroff's world, virtually every Vietnam veteran is a hateful, wife-beating, drug- or alcohol-addicted menace to society. He describes them as ``haunted, death-hardened men, many of them carrying rapes and murders on their rap sheets'' and ``monsters of random cruelty, ruled by the edict of their hair-trigger moods.'' Such men exist, but so, too, do two-and-a-half million Vietnam veterans (of the nation's 2.8 million) living ordinary lives whose biggest problems include thinning hairlines and bulging bellies. Horror stories that reinforce the Hollywood- and mass-media- created image of the screwed-up Vietnam veteran. (Author tour)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-06-017076-X
Page Count: 224
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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