A fine rags-to-riches-to–executioner’s-block story of a major figure of the English Reformation.
A mildly revisionist biography of Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540).
Long reviled as the evil genius who secured Henry VIII’s divorce from Catharine of Aragon and oversaw the looting of Catholic monasteries, Cromwell received spectacular rehabilitation in Hilary Mantel’s novel Wolf Hall (2009) and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies (2012). Agreeing that Mantel was onto something, Borman (Queen of the Conqueror: The Life of Matilda, Wife of William I, 2012, etc.), joint chief curator of historic royal palaces and chief executive of Britain’s Heritage Education Trust, writes an engrossing biography of a ruthless man who rose and fell in the service of a ruthless king, a path followed by dozens close to Henry. Son of a blacksmith, Cromwell traveled and worked on the continent as a young man. At age 30, as a successful London merchant and lawyer, he entered the household of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII’s leading adviser, and prospered. When Henry turned against Wolsey in 1529 (largely due to his reluctance to promote the king’s divorce), Cromwell stepped in. Fiercely dedicated to fulfilling Henry’s desires, Cromwell switched from appeals to the pope to manipulating Parliament and browbeating England’s clerical establishment. After years of political arm-twisting, he succeeded. Henry married Anne Boleyn and, far more significant, replaced the pope as head of the English church. Cromwell presided over the dissolution of church property, a windfall for the king, and successfully distanced himself from Anne as she fell from favor. His luck and life ran out in 1540 when enemies took advantage of Henry’s growing conservatism in matters of religious doctrine (he had less interest than Cromwell in Protestant reforms) and he disastrously supported Henry’s marriage to Anne of Cleves.
A fine rags-to-riches-to–executioner’s-block story of a major figure of the English Reformation.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0802123176
Page Count: 456
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
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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