Goodall (Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe, 1990, etc.), with the help of religious scholar Berman, sets down the spiritual and ethical lights that serve as guides in her rather extraordinary life. A couple of questions keep popping up for Goodall: from where does she get her serenity, considering all the cruelty and violence she has seen between humans and humans, humans and animals, and humans and the environment? And is there any hope? This book is an honest and often elegant groping toward an answer to these questions; in it she relates her belief in God—a God both personal and inclusive—and a divine plan. But she isn’t about to foist that notion on her readers; indeed, she has trouble reconciling the coincident presence of evil and an all-good, all-powerful God. Rather, her hope comes from a number of other wellsprings. One is the evolution of human bioethics, which she sees as steadily, if glacially, improving. Another is the frequent display of fundamental values she witnesses in humans: “honesty, self-discipline, courage, respect for life, courtesy, compassion, and tolerance.” Since she has observed some of these traits in chimpanzees, she considers them, and by extension all animals, worthy of our respect and empathy, thus her work to protect animals. Because Goodall is so decent and intelligent a person, she can go out on a limb without concern of ridicule: she speaks of states of grace, merge states wherein she is one with the forest and its inhabitants, quiet ecstasies of timelessness and peace, out-of-body experiences that grant her an appreciation of the potential beauty inherent in the world, and the application of these intuitive capacities for good in science and everyday behavior. She sets all this in the context of her life’s progress. Goodall is a rare creature accomplishing great things. Her last hope is that readers may find here some good to take away. A PBS tie-in will air in the fall of 1999. (16 pages b&w photos) (Author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 16, 1999
ISBN: 0-466-52225-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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