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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RON BROWN

Heart-warming rather than hard-hitting, this loving biography is by a self-proclaimed ``daddy's girl.'' Writing in the first person, the author refers to the late secretary of commerce as ``Dad'' throughout, and the volume is more family history than chronicle of a public servant's career. Ron's shared experience with his son Michael on the scene as the Berlin Wall came down, for example, is briefly mentioned to introduce the truly significant event of the trip to Germany: visiting the house where Michael's parents lived when he was born. The close-knit life of the Brown family comes across as nothing short of idyllic, and there is no doubt that Tracey utterly adored her father. Even when faults are recognized—Ron's tendency to fall asleep at odd moments or his ineptitude as a driver—they are portrayed as endearing traits; the allegations of corruption that plagued his years in the Clinton administration are dismissed as groundless and politically motivated (the president, by the way, contributes an introduction to the book). Bracketed by accounts of the terrible day a plane crash took Ron's life and the grieving that followed is a survey of major life events: family background, school days, early career in the army, the Urban League, rainmaker at a Washington legal/lobbying firm, and political activities leading to the chairmanship of the Democratic Party and appointment as secretary of commerce. In perhaps the most objective passage of the book, the author recognizes the source of her father's success: ``Dad's ability to schmooze was unequalled.'' There is no pretense that the agenda here is anything other than paying tribute, and given this candor, the book has an innocent quality that is charmingly sweet as well as irritatingly naive. (b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour)

Pub Date: April 3, 1998

ISBN: 0-688-15320-8

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998

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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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