A workmanlike biography of a relatively minor character in the vast Roosevelt saga.
Biography of Theodore Roosevelt’s first son, Ted Jr. (1887-1944), who made a greater soldier than politician.
Next to that of his father, the story of Ted Jr. makes fairly lackluster reading, although the eldest son was similarly athletic, enthusiastic, and brave. According to Brady (A Death in San Pietro: The Untold Story of Ernie Pyle, John Huston, and the Fight for Purple Heart Valley, 2013, etc.), the dean of the School of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Ted proved himself courageously on the battlefield in both world wars. However, he lost his hour in the political arena as a Republican (like his father) with the rises of his older cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Democratic juggernaut. The author does not supply much of his own psychological dissection of Ted’s character, but he notes how the undersized youth with a “wayward” right eye and an early pugnacious behavior was clearly trying very hard to make his Rough Rider father proud. Roosevelt Sr. gently but firmly squelched his son’s desire to attend West Point—such was the president’s legendary ability to persuade and inspire awe—yet Brady hardly questions the young Harvard graduate’s decision to take a menial position in a carpet factory. Perhaps there was a stronger influence by his starchy, no-nonsense mother Edith than is indicated here. The breakout of war (both times) seemed to have saved Ted from obscurity, and his heroic actions in both wars gained him awards of valor. Moreover, Ted was instrumental in establishing the American Legion to honor all veterans (not just veterans of foreign wars) after WWI. Ultimately, as the author underscores, the rivalry between the Oyster Bay Roosevelts and the Hyde Park Roosevelts determined the political fate of Ted Jr.
A workmanlike biography of a relatively minor character in the vast Roosevelt saga.Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-98815-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: New American Library
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
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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