The jotted impressions in this postcardlike memoir will periodically intrigue or amuse, but ultimately leave readers pining...
In Ungar’s debut memoir, a twice-divorced Jewish mother explores Europe in 1974.
An earlier trip to Europe as a study-group chaperone for the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising prompts 36-year-old Ungar to leave her teenage sons with their father while she ventures abroad. Ignoring her mother’s vigorous objections, the unworldly Ungar initially travels to Uxbridge and Rome with a female friend. In Rome, the self-described romantic experiences her first of several passionate, but chastely described, encounters on her journey. When a hastily arranged plan of singing with two African-American women falls apart, Ungar becomes an au pair in St. Tropez, France. This four-month stint proves the most vivid, compelling adventure in the book. Forced to speak only French, the narrator deepens her recollections with snippets of humor, clear-eyed commentary and rich, sensory details. Luscious descriptions of French food, humorous anecdotes featuring a rambunctious boy and keen observations on fashion and island customs make for delightful reading. Elsewhere, Ungar slips repeatedly into dutiful prose, carefully recounting the precise details of sites seen, money spent and letters received. Glossing over unpleasantness such as a roommate’s inability to travel freely because of apartheid, the book focuses on happier, if more mundane, escapades such as the purchase of a yellow hat. A walk through a town where strangers approach and attempt to sell her drugs merits a single sentence. When the narrator hears talk in Germany about World War II and the Nazis, she reports feeling “emotional.” Being told, but not shown, the narrator’s inner state leaves the reader detached. At its best, this memoir charms readers with its minute details of day-to-day life outside of the U.S. in the early 1970s. In the end, it feels more like a historical record written for an inner circle, rather than a compelling tale for a wider audience.
The jotted impressions in this postcardlike memoir will periodically intrigue or amuse, but ultimately leave readers pining for a deeper connection.Pub Date: July 14, 2011
ISBN: 978-1461055297
Page Count: 240
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2011
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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