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UNQUIET DAYS

AT HOME IN POLAND

Lovely but dull memoir of living and teaching English in Poland ten years ago, by the travel editor of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. By marrying a Polish woman and living among her extended family in Warsaw for two years (1980-82), Swick experienced Polish daily life at a time when Solidarity ignited hope and martial law throttled dissent and increased shortages. But while politics lurks at the periphery of this account, Swick's objective is to illuminate the essence of the Polish character through richly detailed descriptions of daily and yearly rhythms that, unfortunately, often become shapeless with uninteresting conversations and details. At his best, the anecdotes resonate: citizens struggling, despite shortages, to prepare traditional dishes for Christmas and Easter, proving that all is not lost under Communism if a family, against heavy odds, could procure a live carp. Much is implied when Swick notes of his students that the task of learning English has become ``the thing to do in Warsaw'' in lieu of entertainment. Yet from subsequent long passages about teachers' lounge chitchat, one wonders how entertained the kids can be. Switching from narrative to journal format, the author obliquely paints the quotidian setting surrounding the imposition of martial law, then finally describes a really stirring moment: A newscaster on Solidarity's first clandestine radio broadcast asks listeners to blink their houselights—and the whole city flickers momentarily. Episcopalian Swick joins the annual pilgrimage to the Black Madonna's shrine, a trek of 40,000 Catholics that brings an extraordinary sense of community, yet mars the story with sentiment and false drama. Although beautifully written with loving detail, Swick's portrait contains more lush literary atmosphere than substance or insight.

Pub Date: Aug. 29, 1991

ISBN: 0-395-58563-5

Page Count: 286

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1991

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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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BLACK BOY

A RECORD OF CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.

It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.

Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.

Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945

ISBN: 0061130249

Page Count: 450

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945

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