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THE COURAGE FOR TRUTH

LETTERS TO WRITERS

The fourth volume of Merton's correspondence, complementing The Hidden Ground of Love, 1985 (letters on religion and society), The Road to Joy, 1989 (letters to friends), and The School of Charity, 1990 (letters on monastic spirituality). It's now apparent that Merton, already celebrated as an autobiographer and Christian contemplative, was also one of the great American letter-writers of the century. His range is as vast as his adopted nation (he was born in France): God, jazz, civil rights, atomic weaponry, obedience, rebellion, etc. Ably edited by Bochen (Religious Studies/Nazareth College of Rochester), this collection consists of letters to other writers; the contents all postdate Merton's bestselling literary debut, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948). The first epistles, in fact, are addressed to Evelyn Waugh, who was assigned the task of trimming Mountain for British publication. Here, Merton is the eager apprentice at the mentor's feet (``I need criticism the way a man dying of thirst needs water''), but not above passing on clever ideas for novels or urging Waugh to recite the rosary. Next comes a compilation of letters to three Christian writers: Jacques Maritain, with whom Merton discusses the joys of the hermit life; Czeslaw Milosz, who questions the value of political action; and Boris Pasternak, to whom Merton reveals some dreams. A flurry of letters to Latin American writers, most of them obscure—Ernesto Cardenal, once a novice monk under Merton's guidance, is a notable exception— invites glossing-over. The great grab bag comes last: missives to American correspondents like James Baldwin, Walker Percy, William Carlos Williams, and Henry Miller (the two balding guys chuckle over their physical likeness). Less jocular than The Road to Joy, less profound than The School of Charity—but, for all that, a well-rounded monument to a well-rounded man.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-374-13055-8

Page Count: 385

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1993

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NIGHT

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. 

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. 

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance.

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006

ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

FROM MEAN STREETS TO WALL STREET

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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