A fairly conventional self-improvement outline with an intriguing poetic twist.
A self-help guide that offers a lifestyle plan based on a 118-year-old poem.
The famous 1897 Edwin Arlington Robinson poem “Richard Cory” provides an unconventional springboard for Corey’s nonfiction debut about “maintaining a positive belief in yourself and in your dream.” In Robinson’s much-anthologized work, the outwardly successful title character, who “glittered when he walked,” appears to be the envy of all the townspeople until the final line when he “Went home and put a bullet in his head.” But whereas Robinson seemingly intended the poem to be a wry commentary on the illusory nature of popularity, Corey interestingly envisions it as a great metaphor for human self-improvement, which he relates to seven immutable cosmic “laws.” The book’s first part consists of a law school seminar paper that the author wrote in which he styles Richard Cory as the embodiment of the American dream. In it, he reimagines the character as a billionaire, a lawyer, and devoutly religious, preaching not only faith in God but faith in self. The book’s second part elaborates on the first, taking the form of Richard Cory’s inner journal and presenting the “blueprint” of the title. It goes on to address such elemental questions as “What drives human behavior?” and “Why do people act in certain ways?” by referencing the aforementioned seven basic laws of creation, such as the law of rhythm, which states that “everything has a cycle,” and the law of gestation, which states that “everything takes time to manifest.” The steps by which Cory moves from these laws to standard self-help nuggets such as, “From now on, I swear to myself that I will disregard limits. I will practice what I preach and preach what I practice,” is never very clear, though, and the enthusiastic invocation of feel-good gurus such as Oprah Winfrey and Rhonda Byrne (author of the 2006 best-seller The Secret) don’t clarify matters. Readers will likely find the author’s highly imaginative deconstruction and reconstruction of the beloved old poem the most rewarding part of the book.
A fairly conventional self-improvement outline with an intriguing poetic twist.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1627461795
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Tate Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
PROFILES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.
A basketball legend reflects on his life in the game and a life lived in the “nightmare of endlessly repetitive and constant pain, agony, and guilt.”
Walton (Nothing but Net, 1994, etc.) begins this memoir on the floor—literally: “I have been living on the floor for most of the last two and a half years, unable to move.” In 2008, he suffered a catastrophic spinal collapse. “My spine will no longer hold me,” he writes. Thirty-seven orthopedic injuries, stemming from the fact that he had malformed feet, led to an endless string of stress fractures. As he notes, Walton is “the most injured athlete in the history of sports.” Over the years, he had ground his lower extremities “down to dust.” Walton’s memoir is two interwoven stories. The first is about his lifelong love of basketball, the second, his lifelong battle with injuries and pain. He had his first operation when he was 14, for a knee hurt in a basketball game. As he chronicles his distinguished career in the game, from high school to college to the NBA, he punctuates that story with a parallel one that chronicles at each juncture the injuries he suffered and overcame until he could no longer play, eventually turning to a successful broadcasting career (which helped his stuttering problem). Thanks to successful experimental spinal fusion surgery, he’s now pain-free. And then there’s the music he loves, especially the Grateful Dead’s; it accompanies both stories like a soundtrack playing off in the distance. Walton tends to get long-winded at times, but that won’t be news to anyone who watches his broadcasts, and those who have been afflicted with lifelong injuries will find the book uplifting and inspirational. Basketball fans will relish Walton’s acumen and insights into the game as well as his stories about players, coaches (especially John Wooden), and games, all told in Walton’s fervent, witty style.
One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.Pub Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1686-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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