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KHRUSHCHEV

Name: KHRUSHCHEV
Author: William J. Tompson
ISBN: 0-312-12365-5

A POLITICAL LIFE

by William J. Tompson ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 17, 1995

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This detailed portrait of the Soviet leader lays bare the many contradictions of his political philosophy and career. Historically sandwiched between Stalin and Brezhnev, Khrushchev was nonetheless a pivotal figure in Soviet history. Born into a poor peasant family, he interpreted his personal history as proof of the validity of communism. Like most self-made men, he sincerely and strongly believed in the society that permitted his success, in contrast to some of his more cynical or bourgeois-born colleagues. As a witness to and a participant in the Soviet Union's extraordinary transformation from a backward regime to a space-age industrial and military giant, he never doubted the eventual triumph of communism. At the same time, as Tompson (Political Science/Univ. of Texas, San Antonio) makes clear, Khrushchev recognized the inherent problems faced by the Soviet Union in its attempt to fashion a truly communist society. Tompson has written a political biography that traces Khrushchev's career in a clear pattern of advances and occasional setbacks. In the story of how Khrushchev navigated the uncertain waters of Soviet politics, we see the intricate, labyrinthine workings of the Kremlin: the constant maneuvering for position, favors, and alliances; the secrecy, betrayal, and treachery. For Tompson, Khrushchev's most important act was his ``secret speech'' before the Twentieth Party Congress in February of 1956, in which he criticized the ``cult of personality'' that had enveloped Stalin, although the leader was not disinclined to allow a less demonic cult of his own. In foreign policy, Khrushchev was known more for his missteps, such as the 1956 invasion of Hungary, the Cuban missile crisis, the deterioration of relations with China, and banging his shoe at the UN. Yet in the wake of Gorbachev, readers must acknowledge the enormous burden Khrushchev placed on himself to reform the USSR after Stalin. A sympathetic biography that acknowledges Khrushchev's many flaws and ultimately renders a positive judgment of the peasant- ruler of the Soviet Union.

Pub Date: April 17, 1995

ISBN: 0-312-12365-5

Page Count: 351

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1995

Categories:

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | POLITICAL & ROYALTY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

FROM MEAN STREETS TO WALL STREET

by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006

Well-told and admonitory.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BUSINESS

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INTO THE WILD

by Jon Krakauer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1996

A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...

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The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).

Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.

A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor will it to readers of Krakauer's narrative. (4 maps) (First printing of 35,000; author tour)