A superb update of the 1977 bestseller Origins, in which famed anthropologist Leakey (One Life, 1984, etc.), assisted by veteran science-writer Lewin (Bones of Contention, 1987), pondered the mysteries of human nature. Leakey is the ``I'' in this first-person account, which includes not only scientific speculation about prehistoric human origins and development, but also a flurry of anecdotes from his personal adventures in the field over several decades. Autobiography and analysis both pivot on the discovery in 1984 by Leakey and his associates of ``the Turkana boy,'' a 1.5 million- year-old Homo erectus fossil. The ``eureka!'' of the find is palpable (``Could we really be on to a skeleton?...We hardly dared voice the speculation—the hope—out loud''), as is Leakey's awe. He details the Turkana boy's daily life, and contrasts Homo erectus culture to that of other early hominids. This leads to conjectures on other puzzles of prehistory: How did consciousness arise? Language? Art? Why did Neanderthals disappear? At times, the answers come by means of new paleontological tools like molecular biology and dental-growth analysis, and Leakey's explanations of these high-tech procedures—usually while detailing a pitched scientific battle between opposing researchers—are models of lucidity. Fans of scientific squabbling will also enjoy watching him keep the heat on archrival Don Johanson, discoverer of ``Lucy,'' challenging him on everything from fossil classification to the derivation of the hominid line. Less enticing, perhaps, is Leakey's philosophical materialism, in which the sole reason for human intelligence is our ``need to understand and outwit others in the drive for reproductive success.'' A few years ago, Leakey turned in his paleontological pickaxe; he now works full-time—surrounded by a retinue of bodyguards—as director of Kenya's antipoaching Wildlife Service. This may be his swan song as a fossil hunter. If so, it's a tingling farewell; if not, it's still vintage Leakey. (Forty b&w photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-385-41264-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1992
IN THE NEWS
James Baldwin has come a long way since the days of Notes of a Native Son, when, in 1955, he wrote: "I love America more than any other country in the world; and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually." Such bittersweet affairs are bound to turn sour. The first curdling came with The Fire Next Time, a moving memoir, yet shot through with rage and prophetic denunciations. It made Baldwin famous, indeed a celebrity, but it did little, in retrospect, to further his artistic reputation. Increasingly, it seems, he found it impossible to reconcile his private and public roles, his creative integrity and his position as spokesman for his race. Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone, for example, his last novel, proved to be little more than a propagandistic potboiler. Nor, alas, are things very much better in No Name In the Street, a brief, rather touchy and self-regarding survey of the awful events of the '60's — the deaths of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, the difficulties of the Black Panther Party, the abrasive and confused relationships between liberals and militants. True, Baldwin's old verve and Biblical raciness are once more heard in his voice; true, there are poignant moments and some surprisingly intimate details. But this chronicle of his "painful route back to engagement" never really comes to grips with history or the self. The revelatory impulse is present only in bits and pieces. Mostly one is confronted with psychological and ideological disingenuousness — and vanity as well.
Pub Date: May 26, 1972
ISBN: 0307275922
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.
Photographer and author Stanton returns with a companion volume to Humans of New York (2013), this one with similarly affecting photographs of New Yorkers but also with some tales from his subjects’ mouths.
Readers of the first volume—and followers of the related site on Facebook and elsewhere—will feel immediately at home. The author has continued to photograph the human zoo: folks out in the streets and in the parks, in moods ranging from parade-happy to deep despair. He includes one running feature—“Today in Microfashion,” which shows images of little children dressed up in various arresting ways. He also provides some juxtapositions, images and/or stories that are related somehow. These range from surprising to forced to barely tolerable. One shows a man with a cat on his head and a woman with a large flowered headpiece, another a construction worker proud of his body and, on the facing page, a man in a wheelchair. The emotions course along the entire continuum of human passion: love, broken love, elation, depression, playfulness, argumentativeness, madness, arrogance, humility, pride, frustration, and confusion. We see varieties of the human costume, as well, from formalwear to homeless-wear. A few celebrities appear, President Barack Obama among them. The “stories” range from single-sentence comments and quips and complaints to more lengthy tales (none longer than a couple of pages). People talk about abusive parents, exes, struggles to succeed, addiction and recovery, dramatic failures, and lifelong happiness. Some deliver minirants (a neuroscientist is especially curmudgeonly), and the children often provide the most (often unintended) humor. One little boy with a fishing pole talks about a monster fish. Toward the end, the images seem to lead us toward hope. But then…a final photograph turns the light out once again.
A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-05890-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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