by Robert W. Killick ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 3, 2017
A cheerful, if unevenly written, remembrance about marriage, business, and chemistry.
An organic chemist and businessman details his unusual journey in this debut memoir.
After losing his job in 1983, Australian chemist Killick, a father of three, came to an unexpected decision with his wife, Judy, a part-time teacher. They resolved to buy a 50-year-old chemical plant in Melbourne and go into business for themselves. Although the plant had “one foot in the grave and the other on a banana skin,” writes Killick in his introduction, “the book records how we reached the point where the grave was filled in whilst the banana proved to be a good fertilizer.” They later found success through the production of “Ee-muls-oyle”—an oil used in the raisin-drying process—and the acquisition of a number of patents. The author and his wife then traveled the world selling their products; eventually, they sold the initial plant and upgraded to a much better facility. As Killick recounts the ups and downs of growing the business over the course of several decades, he makes side trips to inform readers of his early life, his Christian faith, and his deep love of and fruitful marriage to Judy (they refer to their partnership as “the Punch and Judy Travelling show”). He also showcases his goofy sense of humor, which he didn’t hide from his potential business partners. Killick writes in a lighthearted, enthusiastic prose that frequently betrays his own surprise at his own good fortune: “I have a habit of turning to Judy and saying, ‘Drying grapes has got us into some unexpected, quaint places!’ ” The sections of the book dedicated to the building of the chemical company—replete with incidents of improvisation, luck, and near-disaster—will interest anyone who has run, or hopes to run, their own business. The biographical sections, however, are a bit less compelling, and their nonchronological distribution throughout the book makes for an uneven reading experience. That said, readers who have experience with family businesses will find much in common with the author, who’s an entertaining guide through his own story.
A cheerful, if unevenly written, remembrance about marriage, business, and chemistry.Pub Date: April 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5043-0705-5
Page Count: 334
Publisher: BalboaPressAU
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Share your opinion of this book
More by Elie Wiesel
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel
by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006
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
Share your opinion of this book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
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.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.