Lacks momentum as a novel but delivers an enlightening examination of the mental maladies that plague many.
A fact-based fictional tale presents readers with a gallery of psychological ailments that the characters must confront.
Guy is a prosperous entrepreneur with a side job as a therapist. His clients and friends seem to have only one thing in common: issues. There’s Martha, the elderly woman who for years has lived with regret and a lack of purpose; Gerry, a spirited millionaire who endures the ups and downs of bipolar disorder; and Jennifer, encountering a crisis at work and having an affair with a woman that her husband doesn’t know about. One client in particular, James, seems to be a mirror of Guy, having experienced a traumatic childhood that included his parents’ separation, an abusive boarding school, and molestation by a trusted teacher. Meanwhile, Guy copes with his own predicament as his relationship with his wife deteriorates, culminating in their separation and threatening his treasured relationships with his sons. He is suddenly faced with the bitter reality that he must choose between staying in London, an environment in which he thrives, and remaining close to his sons, who reside in a different city. The final section of the book details Guy’s recovery as he seeks to find balance in his life. Throughout the novel, the plot follows Guy’s psychological state in the usual pattern of exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution; however, the flow is somewhat slow-going, pausing to give more attention to secondary characters and their struggles. Fortunately, Guy’s eventual recovery prevents the story from sinking into despair. With this heartening development, Webster (The Seven Secrets Revealed, 2016, etc.) wraps up the tale in a way that is both practical and motivational. Many readers will likely realize that they are not alone in the obstacles they discover in life. Additionally, some may feel psychologically lifted knowing that, compared to the characters in this yarn, their lives aren’t nearly as chaotic as they thought.
Lacks momentum as a novel but delivers an enlightening examination of the mental maladies that plague many.Pub Date: June 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5334-0896-9
Page Count: 370
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.
What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-101-946909
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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