An offbeat and inspiring tale of a vet trying to find a way to help himself.
In this memoir, debut author Voss and freelance writer Nguyen (175 Ways to Travel Today, 2014) tell the story of Voss’ epic journey to combat his PTSD.
In 2004, Voss was a scout attached to a Stryker infantry brigade, participating in hundreds of combat missions, security patrols, and other duties across Iraq. When he came home to Milwaukee after his 2006 honorable discharge, however, he was plagued by feelings of grief, shame, and guilt regarding things that he’d seen in the war zone, including the deaths of close friends. Then, in 2013, he received an invitation to visit a friend in California, 2,700 miles away, and he decided to do it in an unexpected way—on foot: “No cars, no support vehicles, no rides from anyone. Just my two feet, the open road, and the ghosts of the past who demanded to be dealt with.” A friend and fellow vet, Anthony Anderson, accompanied him, and for both men, the trip became a surprisingly proactive approach to dealing with trauma. As Voss made his way across the West, he encountered a variety of characters—including a filmmaker who occasionally documented the walk; a Native American healer, known as WolfWalker; and veterans of different generations and wars. Along the way, he somewhat unexpectedly found comfort in meditation. The authors tell Voss’ story in clear, conversational prose, as if Voss were casually speaking across a dinner table: “In Iowa we’d met a marine-turned-rancher-turned-pastor who told us that life demands a response. You can respond to trauma by curling in on yourself like a wilting plant, or you can respond by taking action to face the pain and move through it. That sounded good, but I was taking action.” Overall, the book is an engaging mix of war story, travelogue, and motivational memoir, presenting the trials of a man with roiling emotions but no clear method of releasing them. As the journey goes on, his book becomes an unlikely look at the pain of everyday people in contemporary America, and particularly that of forgotten soldiers of forgotten wars.
An offbeat and inspiring tale of a vet trying to find a way to help himself.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-60868-599-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: New World Library
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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