Fits snugly on the shelf of books by European-Americans who acquired native lore, but transcends the category with its prose.
A continuation of Harmer’s first memoir (Going Native, not reviewed) and of his apprenticeship to Okanogan Indian elder Clayton Tommy Jr.
In the 1980s, Harmer lived along the Washington-Canada border. He had studied with Tommy in the past, learning the ways of the Okanoga and their rituals for hunting, but now he worked in an overheated office. During what was supposed to be an uneventful winter walk, Harmer nearly froze to death in a sudden snowstorm. But as he was losing consciousness, he heard a voice telling him to build a fire; it saved his life. As a result, the author decided to reconnect with Tommy and continue his apprenticeship; the result is this lengthy description of his spiritual education. Some of the passages are quite moving. Harmer is “given” dreams that correspond to future events: a dream of a young woman with two children leads him to venison and to a friend whose safety was in jeopardy; another vision tells him that a runaway boy nicknamed Boot will be fine, and that Harmer’s closest friend has a flat tire and will be late returning from a trip. The author has a fine eye for nature writing: “Showers swept over the lake in a blurring of nearby brush, a slapping of tiny drops on a rock, a rustling of ironwood shrubs. The ironwood hung with wispy sprays like dried foam, what had been brushed off as hairy seed-dust on my coat sleeves.” Harmer closes as he sets out on a new journey arranged by his mentor. On this “long wander,” he must find specific power places and accomplish certain tests. The reader is left with a sense of hopefulness; surely Harmer completed his apprenticeship successfully.
Fits snugly on the shelf of books by European-Americans who acquired native lore, but transcends the category with its prose.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2003
ISBN: 1-4000-4855-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harmony
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2003
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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