A flawed remembrance, but one dotted with extraordinary anecdotes.
A brief, quirky memoir of a businessman’s unusually eventful life.
Debut author Spitz writes that he struggled under the mercurial tyranny of this father, whom he portrays as a sometimes-charming but brutal man. When he was in high school, the author decided to run away from his home in Maine to Daytona Beach, Florida, accompanied by his two best friends, Bob and Ed. Bob had a 1937 Ford, and the trio collectively raised $150 in travel money, just enough for a frugal budget. They eventually they made it to Daytona and found work with a mechanic, but Ed’s worried parents eventually collected him, and the remaining two soon returned to Maine, as well. The author’s tumultuous home life inspired him to plot escape again, this time with money raised from his illegal business selling dead deer to ersatz hunters who were only in the woods to get away from their wives; he was finally caught and given a year’s probation. He temporarily made amends with his father, who offered to send him to college. He attended Nichols College in Massachusetts and later enrolled at the University of Maryland’s law school. Along the way, he worked at a machine-gun factory, as a bootlegger, and as a salesman for a contact lens company (before he opened his own). This is a brief memoir, and it reads more like a recitation of events than a philosophical meditation. Here and there, the author offers moments of commentary, but he generally lets the events speak for themselves. Still, Spitz’s life is genuinely packed with adventures. For example, he once defended himself in a bar fight with an off-duty police officer and was threatened when he wouldn’t drop charges against his attacker; he says that he eventually accepted a $2,000 bribe to let bygones be bygones. The book ends so abruptly, though, that it seems unfinished; there are also closing reflections on the suicide of Clinton administration insider Vince Foster, which seem out of place. As a whole, the memoir lacks a firm structure or thematic unity, but it compensates with some generally good storytelling.
A flawed remembrance, but one dotted with extraordinary anecdotes.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5320-0832-0
Page Count: 134
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A thoughtful, engaging history for intermediate students interested in Africa.
Oliver’s debut, about one of West Africa’s most powerful and charismatic leaders, delivers a vibrant mix of history and historical fiction for young adults.
The book introduces the medieval empire of Mali with several short narrative essays on trans-Atlantic exploration, trade and mining and soon narrows its focus to the compelling life story of the emperor Mansa Musa, who ruled Mali in the early 1300s. Oliver shows how Musa gained influence while making a lavish, politically important trip to Mecca, and his deft explanation of how Musa crossed the vast Sahara Desert briefly but skillfully conveys the difficulty of the lengthy voyage. This enjoyable work smoothly blends historical text with memorable anecdotes from primary and secondary sources, photos and sketches of replicas of ancient and medieval African art, and well-drawn maps. The book moves at a fast pace, and the author’s clear, straightforward style is likely to appeal to young adults. He easily switches between topics, discussing history (how Musa gained recognition in Egypt and North Africa), religion (how Islam shaped Musa and his empire), architecture (the methods of construction for Malian mud-brick buildings) and fables (the legend of the Malian “gold plant”). However, Oliver always strives for historical accuracy; even his fictional account of a young sandal maker who travels to Niani’s great market contains period-appropriate language and scenery. The book also includes a lengthy glossary that is amply illustrated with drawings and photographs of West African boats and buildings. The work’s one shortcoming is its abrupt ending after Musa returns home; it lacks a thorough explanation as to how and why the empire of Mali eventually dissolved.
A thoughtful, engaging history for intermediate students interested in Africa.Pub Date: March 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-1468053548
Page Count: 128
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Ringgold’s biography of Rosa Parks packs substantial material into a few pages, but with a light touch, and with the ring of authenticity that gives her act of weary resistance all the respect it deserves. Narrating the book is the bus that Parks took that morning 45 years ago; it recounts the signal events in Parks’s life to a young girl who boarded it to go to school. A decent amount of the material will probably be new to children, for Parks is so intimately associated with the Montgomery Bus Boycott that her work with the NAACP before the bus incident is often overlooked, as is her later role as a community activist in Detroit with Congressman John Conyers. Ringgold, through the bus, also informs readers of Parks’s youth in rural Alabama, where Klansmen and nightriders struck fear into the lives of African-Americans. These experiences make her refusal to release her seat all the more courageous, for the consequences of resistance were not gentle. All the events are depicted in emotive naive artwork that underscores their truth; Ringgold delivers Parks’s story without hyperbole, but rather as a life lived with pride, conviction, and consequence. (Picture book/biography. 5-9)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81892-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
