Capably written but perfunctory pieces that will fail to please any but the most devoted readers.
Mixed essays on matters of life, death, and academia.
Sanders (Hunting for Hope, 1998) opens with a meditation on the loss of loved ones, the inevitable leave-taking of children who grow up to make lives and homes of their own, and the advancing years—events that can easily set a person to wondering what life is all about. He goes on to recount his long-standing concern with scriptural questions, venturing thoughtful readings of biblical passages and offering a few conclusions on the spiritual plane. Some of these are elegant in their plainspoken sincerity: “I no longer believe that Jesus can do our dying for us; we must do that for ourselves, one by one.” Sanders goes on to deliver fine pieces on such topics as the many kinds of wood that make up his Bloomington, Indiana, house (whose patterns, he claims, point to the underlying order of nature) and the importance of diversity in agriculture and culture alike. His energy soon flags, however, and he strays far from the questions of spirit his title promises into hurried, even throwaway essays on the books he keeps in his bedroom and the kind of writing he expects from the college students in his charge. His least successful essays are second-person addresses to his father and other family members (“Whenever I get irritated by the latest corruption or cruelty in the daily news, I remember you grumbling as you read the paper”), epistles that unfold with all the subtlety of a greeting card and lower the average considerably.
Capably written but perfunctory pieces that will fail to please any but the most devoted readers.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8070-6296-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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