A short, sweet, inspirational work for Christian readers.
Colbert tells of how God helped him survive a lifetime of close calls in this spiritual debut memoir.
In 1960, at the age of 8, the author was hit by a car as he ran across Baltimore’s 25th Street, but he survived after three surgeries. When he was a teenager, one of his friends fired a handgun at him from a distance of 50 feet, but the bullet miraculously hit a nearby clothesline pole instead. When the diabetic author was in his 60s, he was rushed to the hospital with a near-fatal blood-sugar level, but he was released only 11 days later. All in all, Colbert says that he’s survived 12 different brushes with death. He pulled through, time and again, he says, “primarily because of the Love, Grace, Mercy, Power and Providence of all mighty God.” In this book, he details his various trials and tribulations, from alcoholism and heroin addiction to clinical depression and an enlarged prostate; in each case, he writes about how his religious beliefs sustained him and delivered him to safety. He also details the many blessings in his life, which he says illustrates God’s love for the faithful. Overall, the author writes in an enthusiastic, conversational prose style that captures Colbert’s gratitude for life: “I was one happy kid living in poverty. I believe that real poverty is found in the lives of the rich and famous. Poverty of mind and soul.” This is a short work—fewer than 80 pages long—and as a result, Colbert doesn’t delve deeply into the details of his biography; instead, he concentrates on the relevant anecdotes that support his argument. Readers may not interpret all of the author’s close calls as life-or-death situations, but they may find that he’s surmounted enough difficulty to lend his theological leanings some weight.
A short, sweet, inspirational work for Christian readers.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-973615-01-9
Page Count: 102
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2018
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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