A book of humane scope that reveals an intriguing political history and a life of compassion.
A London journalist presents a biography of one of the world’s enigmatic female leaders.
Beginning with the 1991 assassination of Sonia’s husband, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Singh traces back to Sonia’s girlhood, her English education and her eventual marriage, emphasizing the charged atmosphere in mother-in-law Indira Gandhi’s household. The author then discusses the death of Rajiv’s brother, Sanjay, and Indira’s assassination by her own bodyguards, circling back to Rajiv’s term in office, his death and beyond. Singh portrays Sonia not as a strategist aiming for power, nor as a widow pushed onto the stage by tragedy, but as a family-oriented woman inspired by her adopted country. She did not accept the position of president until several years afterward; how reluctance transformed into the will to preserve a legacy comprises much of the second half of the book. Though Singh provides few quotes from Sonia herself, readers will glimpse how she earned the trust of her constituency through decades of personal involvement and with the Nehru tradition of honoring public meetings, all while preserving her own privacy. The author occasionally dwells on darker moments, but Sonia does not appear to rely on sympathy. Readers initially intrigued by the famous namesake (unrelated to Mahatma), by India’s violent, sometimes sectarian past and by the Nehru descendants—often likened to the Kennedys—will find that the author assembles a story of mostly balanced perspective. Readers unfamiliar with Sonia’s life will also discover a woman of surprisingly level-headed strength.
A book of humane scope that reveals an intriguing political history and a life of compassion.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-230-10441-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
Riveting and exquisitely crafted.
Musician, poet and visual artist Smith (Trois, 2008, etc.) chronicles her intense life with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe during the 1960s and ’70s, when both artists came of age in downtown New York.
Both born in 1946, Smith and Mapplethorpe would become widely celebrated—she for merging poetry with rock ’n’ roll in her punk-rock performances, he as the photographer who brought pornography into the realm of art. Upon meeting in the summer of 1967, they were hungry, lonely and gifted youths struggling to find their way and their art. Smith, a gangly loser and college dropout, had attended Bible school in New Jersey where she took solace in the poetry of Rimbaud. Mapplethorpe, a former altar boy turned LSD user, had grown up in middle-class Long Island. Writing with wonderful immediacy, Smith tells the affecting story of their entwined young lives as lovers, friends and muses to one another. Eating day-old bread and stew in dumpy East Village apartments, they forged fierce bonds as soul mates who were at their happiest when working together. To make money Smith clerked in bookstores, and Mapplethorpe hustled on 42nd Street. The author colorfully evokes their days at the shabbily elegant Hotel Chelsea, late nights at Max’s Kansas City and their growth and early celebrity as artists, with Smith winning initial serious attention at a St. Mark’s Poetry Project reading and Mapplethorpe attracting lovers and patrons who catapulted him into the arms of high society. The book abounds with stories about friends, including Allen Ginsberg, Janis Joplin, William Burroughs, Sam Shepard, Gregory Corso and other luminaries, and it reveals Smith’s affection for the city—the “gritty innocence” of the couple’s beloved Coney Island, the “open atmosphere” and “simple freedom” of Washington Square. Despite separations, the duo remained friends until Mapplethorpe’s death in 1989. “Nobody sees as we do, Patti,” he once told her.
Riveting and exquisitely crafted.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-06-621131-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
For the author’s fans.
A Fox News journalist and talk show host sets out to prove that she is not “an empty St. John suit in five-inch stiletto heels.”
The child of devout Christians, Minnesota native Carlson’s first love was music. She began playing violin at age 6 and quickly revealed that she was not only a prodigy, but also a little girl who thrived on pleasing audiences. Working with top teachers, she developed her art over the years. But by 16, Carlson began “chafing at [the] rigid, structured life” of a concert violinist–in-training and temporarily put music aside. At the urging of her mother, the high achiever set her sights on winning the Miss T.E.E.N. pageant, where she was first runner-up. College life at Stanford became yet another quest for perfection that led Carlson to admit it was “not attainable” after she earned a C in one class. At the end of her junior year and again at the urging of her mother, Carlson entered the 1989 Miss America pageant, which she would go on to win thanks to a brilliant violin performance. Dubbed the “smart Miss America,” Carlson struggled with pageant stereotypes as well as public perceptions of who she was. Being in the media spotlight every day during her reign, however, also helped her decide on a career in broadcast journalism. Yet success did not come easily. Sexual harassment dogged her, and many expressed skepticism about her abilities due to her pageant past. Even after she rose to national prominence, first as a CBS news broadcaster and then as a Fox talk show host, Carlson continued—and continues—to be labeled as “dumb or a bimbo.” Her history clearly demonstrates that she is neither. However, Carlson’s overly earnest tone, combined with her desire to show her Minnesota “niceness…in action,” as well as the existence of “abundant brain cells,” dampens the book’s impact.
For the author’s fans.Pub Date: June 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-525-42745-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
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