A haunting prison diary that depicts the epic sorrow and unmitigated human suffering that took place in the ``re-education'' camps of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Ten years after his release, novelist and poet Zhang reconstructs his 22-year ``rehabilitation'' in Chinese labor camps by referring to a skeletal journal that he kept at the time. Days and weeks are collapsed into single words or short, neutral sentences in order to avoid the wrath of the censors—and the firing squad. He describes a life punctuated by extreme physical labor, up to 18 hours a day spent carrying his own weight in mud bricks or tending rice plants in brackish water that produced painful and extremely itchy inflammation of the legs. Rations, sufficient at first, were later cut to a few grains of rice and scoops of ``grass soup''—a liquid created by boiling the greens weeded out of the crop fields. Literally tens of millions died during the drought of 196062, and Zhang discusses survival tactics such as stealing vegetables and eating boiled rats and toads for extra nutrition. One man killed himself during a visit from his wife after devouring the food that she had brought, perhaps, Zhang speculates, to avoid becoming a ``hungry ghost,'' the worst of the spirits of the Chinese underworld. The most horrifying aspect of the camps was the practice of ``self-surveillance.'' The inmates were so conditioned to report themselves and others for ``anti- revolutionary'' words and actions that high walls and prison guards were unnecessary. Rather than planning escape attempts, most of the energy of the ``intellectual'' prisoners was spent defaming other inmates. The police state had achieved its highest goal—each citizen had begun to police the next. An extraordinary glimpse into one of the darkest periods of human history.
Pub Date: July 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-56792-030-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Godine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995
Full of interesting factoids–-but the blatant advertising for Kushner's products is pervasive to the point the book becomes...
A wake-up call about caffeine from a committed and self-interested author.
Formerly a newspaper journalist in Russia who consumed enormous amounts of coffee and cigarettes, Kushner relocated to New York City during the early '90s. Shortly thereafter, she learned she suffered from Celiac disease, a genetic disorder that was perhaps exacerbated by products containing caffeine. She researched caffeine substitutes, none of them suiting her tastes. And she discovered that certain substitutes contain gluten, another substance that those with Celiac cannot tolerate. Thus, she "invented" soy coffee and uses this book as her marketing platform. It's frequently informative, though, once the the text moves beyond pure publicity. For instance, she mentions that England's King Charles II attempted to shutter coffeehouses in 1675 because men tended to neglect their families while staying out to consume caffeine. Widespread protest, though, defeated the ban; the Boston Tea Party of 1773 resulted in the consumption of coffee as a patriotic duty; the world's first espresso machine began making noise in France in 1882; Maxwell House coffee is named after a Nashville hotel; US coffee sales boomed during the 1920s thanks to Prohibition; the US imported 70 percent of the world’s coffee crop at the beginning of WWII; Starbucks opened its first store in Seattle in 1971. These are just a few pieces of coffee trivia the author offers. She also briefly discusses the history of the American addiction to caffeine, explaining the chemistry of the substance, listing specific health threats (heart disease, central-nervous-system disorders, ulcers, cancer) and mapping out specific routes to end dependency. Unfortunately, though, the style interferes with the substance, as the tone is often shrill and alarmist. An appendix titled "Make a Difference!" is the call to action here, urging readers to petition the FDA for fuller disclosure among coffee manufacturers of specific product caffeine levels.
Full of interesting factoids–-but the blatant advertising for Kushner's products is pervasive to the point the book becomes soporific.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-9747582-0-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An adequate guide for running high-performance workgroups within a corporate setting, but far from a guaranteed formula for...
A satisfactory business study confirming the old business saw that 10% of the people do 90% of the work.
According to Annunzio's analysis, only 10% of elite information workers work in high performance-workgroups. The remaining 90%? Apparently they labor away as modern-day Bob Cratchits, in environments that neither demand nor deliver optimal performance. Ebullient accounts of the ideal workplace are nothing new in business nonfiction, nor are the lugubrious tales of moribund organizations. The author rarely notes here, though, anything we haven't heard a million times before from Tom Peters, Steven Covey, or even Donald Trump. Her maxims are boilerplate business clichés: value people; optimize critical thinking; seize opportunities. But basing a formula for business success on such bland principles is problematic, since they are so vague as to be meaningless. Do companies fail because they neglect to do such things? Most failures had nothing to do with workgroup functioning; instead, they stemmed from lack of foresight and, more commonly, simple bad luck. Nonetheless, Annunzio does proffer good advice for companies that wish to maximize the performance of their workgroups. First, identify those that are performing at a high level, those that can provide evidence of profit/revenue growth along with product, service, or process innovation. Second, work on bringing average groups up to maximum performance. More importantly, avoid destructive behaviors such as micromanagement, bureaucratic interference, resource and information hoarding, politics, and control. She also makes the astute—and cost-saving—observation that before hiring high-priced consultants to solve business problems, companies might consider consulting their own employees, who are more likely to know the answers.
An adequate guide for running high-performance workgroups within a corporate setting, but far from a guaranteed formula for business success.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2004
ISBN: 0-59184-060-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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