Sir Paul once remarked to the author, “We were just four kids trying to earn a living.” They were much, much more, of...
A pleasing romp through the Beatles’ annus mirabilis.
The year 1966 was the year of “Revolver,” with the band looking back into “Rubber Soul” and forward into “Sgt. Pepper.” Paul McCartney hung out with Brian Wilson, and sparks—good sparks—flew. Most of all, as London-based music journalist Turner (Popcultured: Thinking Christianly About Style, Media and Entertainment, 2013, etc.) notes in passing, it was a time when John Lennon was happy enough with his mates that he could foresee doing solo projects but keeping the Beatles going: “You need other people for ideas and we all get along fine.” December 1965, when Turner’s account begins, sees the beginning of a new phase that would find the Beatles within the studio and out of the public eye; as he reckons, the Beatles had played 188 gigs in Britain in 1962, but only 50 in 1965, in part because of the demands of worldwide touring but also because they were about to put an end to touring at all, thanks in some measure to some very unpleasant experiences in places like the Philippines. Turner provides some interesting side notes throughout, as with the Beatles’ interactions with Motown and its stars. The account closes a year later, with some interesting divergences; as Turner writes, Lennon and the lads were deep inside “Strawberry Fields Forever,” trying to find the missing element that would turn the song into magic, but broke away from it to record the very different McCartney vehicle “When I’m Sixty-Four,” a song with what Paul called a “rooty tooty” sound. Lennon’s comment about the Beatles’ popularity compared to that of a certain messiah notwithstanding, a splendid time was had by all, and Turner’s account is generally light and lighthearted, if occasionally disjointed.
Sir Paul once remarked to the author, “We were just four kids trying to earn a living.” They were much, much more, of course, and while he breaks little new ground, Turner does a nice job of capturing them at their best.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-247548-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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