A compelling book that brings the stark realities of debt in America to light.
Longtime jurist Curley details the wide-ranging unfairness of American bankruptcy law.
The author’s judgeship in Arizona’s bankruptcy court lasted nearly three decades; in this work, she highlights the inequalities faced by people in debt, based on their relative income. Curley situates her analysis of contemporary events within the broader framework of bankruptcy history in the United States. Much of the current system dates back to the late 19th century, she notes, with the enshrinement of the 1898 Bankruptcy Act into law. The act kickstarted a streamlining of a previously hodgepodge system. She teases out the major forms of modern bankruptcy protection, which include Chapters 7 (liquidation), 9 (municipal bankruptcy), and 11 (reorganization). She delves into her own career as well, explaining her decision to pursue this field as a way to help her fellow citizens get a fresh financial start. Curley notes the preferential treatment that’s often given to wealthy debtors in court. Often, she says, affluent debtors are allowed to keep jewelry and other luxury items as part of their settlements; those of lesser means don’t necessarily get the same treatment. She notes that many people are just hoping for a new start after facing the burden of medical debt; in 2019 alone, she writes, two-thirds of filings in the United States resulted from health care expenses. She further points out that 60% of Americans surveyed said they had less than $1,000 available for possible emergencies. Meanwhile, many affluent debtors, in Curley’s estimation, use the current system primarily as a means of gaining a strategic advantage in wealth reorganization.
In certain instances, Curley appealingly gets into the weeds about relevant legal history, explaining how specific court decisions have affected millions of potential taxpayers. Deregulation of the banking and credit card industries during the 1980s had a particularly toxic impact on debtors of modest means, she writes; Curley was in Arizona to see firsthand one of the most famous bankruptcy cases of all time, which involved the collapse of financier Charles Keating’s banking empire. Keating would later be convicted of fraudulent practices, and the bankruptcy of his Lincoln Savings and Loan would end up costing taxpayers billions of dollars. Overall, this book serves simultaneously as a memoir and a warning; it’s a deeply personal account of a life led in service of the law as well as a forcefully presented and thoughtfully written account of debt in modern America. Readers who are interested in an unvarnished account of the financial struggles faced by millions of Americans will be well served by this book; Curley writes clearly and concisely without simplifying the complexities of her subject. This book belongs on a shelf alongside other works that demonstrate the microeconomic impact of macroeconomic shifts in the American economy, such as Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed (2001) and Matthew Desmond’s Evicted (2016). As in those works, Curley writes with keen empathy from a place of expertise.
A compelling book that brings the stark realities of debt in America to light.Pub Date: today
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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
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