An exceptional remembrance that illuminates both its subject and his homeland.
An anti-Vietnam War activist who served in the conflict contemplates his generation’s failure to change the “rampant militarism of post-WWII America” in a candid memoir.
Mahoney, now in his 70s, reveals himself as someone who’s honored his ideals throughout his life—whether they landed him in a war halfway around the world as a second lieutenant with Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV), or in a Florida courtroom on trial for allegedly attempting to disrupt the 1972 Republican Convention as one of the “Gainesville Eight.” He later worked as a “rules and regs guy” for an unnamed nonprofit international development organization and journeyed to the Standing Rock Reservation in the Dakotas where he tried to help stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The decorated veteran modestly frames this frank and highly readable memoir as a way for his children to better understand their father; however, he also succeeds at creating a work that may help some of his fellow Americans better understand their country. For example, he characterizes his development work as “empty and worthless,” and his activities at Standing Rock as seeming like “an exercise in futility” as two presidential administrations pushed the pipeline forward (although, of the latter, he notes that he’s “proud of what we were able to accomplish and wish we could have done more”). All these endeavors, in the author’s estimation, fit in with a “lifelong trend of me being attracted to an ideal and then becoming disillusioned when I was confronted with the reality behind the ideal.” This feeling of bleakness—coupled with the terrible fact that the U.S. government has only intensified its international military presence since the Vietnam War ended in 1975—ultimately contributed to Mahoney experiencing bouts of suicidal ideation, he says. However, he effectively relates that he also achieved some clarity about what drives his nation: “I do know that if we are to survive,” he observes, “we must find a more just, more humane approach to organizing our economic activity than capitalism.”
An exceptional remembrance that illuminates both its subject and his homeland.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9798891323988
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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