Not just for the religious; a familiar but useful guide for embracing aging.
A philosophical and theological treatise discussing the emotional upheavals experienced during the transition into middle age and the joys to be discovered if the transition is understood and appreciated.
Sammon (A Heart That Knew No Bounds, 2013, etc.), who first published this volume in 1997, has released a newly edited edition “at the request of a new generation of midlife readers.” In 1994, at the age of 47, Sammon was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor that required surgery. The treatment was successful, but the experience inspired him to reflect on and eventually write about his personal journey into middle age—the physical and emotional changes as well as the opportunities for a greater understanding of self. Sammon is a member of the clergy, a Marist Brother, and so this exploration also includes a reevaluation of his relationship with God. It’s the transitional period itself that primarily concerns Sammon, those years when “time starts to pinch. We sense that we have crossed a threshold and begin to realize that probably more time lies behind us than stretches ahead.” He defines middle age as between 40 and 65, to be followed by “late and late, late adulthood,” which have their own periods of transition. Much of this territory is well-trod, but Sammon’s clear prose and wry humor (“And let’s be honest: when the leg muscles of an eighteen-year-old boy fire, he takes off like an antelope; when a man of forty-five tries to do the same, he tears his Achilles tendon”) make this short text accessible and pleasant. Don’t look back at what is lost when aging, Sammon urges. Rather, turn forward joyfully to the adventure of becoming the more knowledgeable, more compassionate, more loving individual that will define you as you travel through life’s second half.
Not just for the religious; a familiar but useful guide for embracing aging.Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5377-3377-7
Page Count: 108
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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