UFO conspiracy theories, delivered in red-alert tones by an atypical follower.
Vernon, in his debut, tells how his boyhood sighting of a “flying saucer” over his neighbor’s house led him on a lifelong quest into UFO encounters and shadowy government scheming.
The author provides a big-picture exegesis of UFO conspiracy theories, while weaving in his own personal story about being a reluctant “contactee.” A science (and science-fiction) buff as a youngster, he was stunned when one night in 1968, he saw a flying saucer up-close from his bedroom window—an uncanny thing, hovering over a nearby yard. Vernon then delved into ufology, and over the years, his everyday life took some twisted turns. For example, his work mate at a Florida psychic phone line diagnosed him as being a victim of secret, regular alien monitoring and experiments since his early childhood. At this point, Vernon shifts the focus away from the story of himself, setting aside an intriguing subtheme about his dawning realization of his sexuality. Instead, the book turns to the alarmist notions of would-be E.T.-hunters and whistle-blowers in the X-Files-ish ufology subculture. It supports a sinister thesis of terrestrial governments having “sold out” the human race to dissection-happy space creatures, in exchange for access to flying-disc technology (later tested at Area 51). The author helpfully evaluates books, videos and interviews with late-night paranormal-radio luminaries such as Stanton Friedman, Communion author Whitley Strieber, Linda Moulton Howe and famed, alleged abductee Travis Walton, usually approvingly. Interestingly, however, the author doesn’t uphold every UFO conspiracy theory, instead praising “healthy skepticism,” which is perhaps why some popular UFO-lit concepts, such as Bigfoot and the Men in Black, are conspicuously absent. He also delivers engaging, snappish callouts against unbelievers (he describes the late Carl Sagan as a “cobra,” for example), the faceless elites behind the “cover-up,” and a dumbed-down, apathetic public. At its best, it’s evocative of iconoclastic sci-fi author Harlan Ellison at his snarkiest.
UFO conspiracy theories, delivered in red-alert tones by an atypical follower.Pub Date: April 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-0991433513
Page Count: 462
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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.
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
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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