Inspirational advice on forging one’s own path, in bite-size verses and columns, with a few rough patches, but nonetheless...
Borrowing from Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist (2006) for its epigraph, Jack’s collection of free-verse poems and newspaper columns channels an optimistic perspective on life.
“Signposts along the path of my life,” Jack says of the stories and poems comprising his first book. In it, he tells the story of his homecoming back to southern Colorado and self-discovery after his career took him away for more than 20 years. But when he came home to the San Luis Valley, vivified by his newfound love of horses, he was able to ponder the course of his life. His newspaper writings reflect lessons learned: He thanks those who gave him moral support, notably his mother and father and his friend Diane; reflects on how time flies; considers ties to ancestors, parents, children and grandchildren; unpacks the definition of professional success; and reveals the secret to a happy marriage. “You find the person you love and just keep working on it,” says his mother, who’s been married to his father for more than 60 years. His everyman’s voice—cultivated in his years as a columnist—fosters a familiarity with readers that helps his hard-earned advice go down easily This method is particularly effective when Jack takes on controversial topics, as when he criticizes the tenure process for professors, or when he suggests that we should be choosier in deciding whom to trust. His poems explore similar themes in simple language with inspirational overtones, in a style evocative of Mary Oliver’s praise poems, though without her religious concerns. Jack’s meditations are more rooted in human-to-human contact: our relationships with one another and our surroundings. He tends to lean heavily on cliché—“Lost in loneliness, / Searching for a flicker / Of hope”—but he’s also capable of capturing memorable images, especially in describing the singular geography of the American West. In “Storm on the Horizon,” for instance, he describes city lights that make “Albuquerque seem so alive we could watch it grow.”
Inspirational advice on forging one’s own path, in bite-size verses and columns, with a few rough patches, but nonetheless rewarding for optimistic readers open to the journey.Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-1458208194
Page Count: 84
Publisher: AbbottPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A marvelously tender memoir on suicide and loss.
An essayist and novelist turns her attention to the heartache of a friend’s suicide.
Crosley’s memoir is not only a joy to read, but also a respectful and philosophical work about a colleague’s recent suicide. “All burglaries are alike, but every burglary is uninsured in its own way,” she begins, in reference to the thief who stole the jewelry from her New York apartment in 2019. Among the stolen items was her grandmother’s “green dome cocktail ring with tiers of tourmaline (think kryptonite, think dish soap).” She wrote those words two months after the burglary and “one month since the violent death of my dearest friend.” That friend was Russell Perreault, referred to only by his first name, her boss when she was a publicist at Vintage Books. Russell, who loved “cheap trinkets” from flea markets, had “the timeless charm of a movie star, the competitive edge of a Spartan,” and—one of many marvelous details—a “thatch of salt-and-pepper hair, seemingly scalped from the roof of an English country house.” Over the years, the two became more than boss and subordinate, teasing one another at work, sharing dinners, enjoying “idyllic scenes” at his Connecticut country home, “a modest farmhouse with peeling paint and fragile plumbing…the house that Windex forgot.” It was in the barn at that house that Russell took his own life. Despite the obvious difference in the severity of robbery and suicide, Crosley fashions a sharp narrative that finds commonality in the dislocation brought on by these events. The book is no hagiography—she notes harassment complaints against Russell for thoughtlessly tossed-off comments, plus critiques of the “deeply antiquated and often backward” publishing industry—but the result is a warm remembrance sure to resonate with anyone who has experienced loss.
A marvelously tender memoir on suicide and loss.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780374609849
Page Count: 208
Publisher: MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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