A lovely tribute to a father from his son that has limited appeal to those outside the Bradshaw clan.
An eclectic collection of letters from a sailor to his family during and after World War II.
While serving as a sailor in the U.S. Merchant Marine Corps during World War II, Frank B. Bradshaw Jr. faithfully wrote his mother and father, keeping them abreast of his travels and safety. In his first book, Robert W. Bradshaw, Frank’s son, has collected more than three dozen of those letters, from December 1944 to August 1946. The tone of the letters is set immediately; in December 1944, Frank expressed his regret that he didn’t come home for Christmas, an example of the closeness of the Bradshaw family that comes through in every epistle. Sometimes the letters are thrilling, portals into a historically tumultuous time. Frank chillingly describes the “cold-blooded slaughter” of Ukrainians by German soldiers, a vignette of the many horrors on display during the war. While touring Germany, he marveled at both the beauty of the country and the ruin brought to it by battle. “Hamburg was hit the hardest of any city I’ve seen. In some places, there is not so much as a wall standing for miles.” In August 1945, he first communicated the rumors he had heard that Japan was considering surrender and that the end of the war might finally be at hand. Frank’s correspondence also serves collectively as a kind of travelogue, documenting his impressions of locales that must have seemed exotic to a 19-year-old from Memphis. He visited New York City, Panama, London, Cuba, and many more cities and marveled at all the cultural variations. The common theme of the letters seems to be a persistent homesickness and a loving devotion to his family. While always charming, this particular collection will likely interest those who either knew or are related to Frank—the reader looking for fresh historical revelations will be disappointed. Another drawback: much of Frank’s writing is devoted to descriptions of quotidian matters. He provides a running assessment, often replete with detailed menus, of the meals he ate. The editor ends the book with three brief conclusions largely concerned with his view of the connection between God and science; these are difficult to comprehend and bear no obvious connection to the letters.
A lovely tribute to a father from his son that has limited appeal to those outside the Bradshaw clan.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4917-7185-3
Page Count: 92
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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