A relentlessly captivating study of two remarkable individuals who helped extend the roles of American women in the public...
A dual biography of the 30-year relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) and Lorena Hickok (1893-1968).
In 1932, Hickok was an Associated Press journalist writing about politics and other serious matters, unusual for a woman at the time. Soon after she met soon-to-be White House occupant Eleanor, the two formed an intimate relationship that lasted at various levels of intensity until Roosevelt's death. Biographer Quinn (Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art out of Desperate Times, 2008, etc.) delves into the privileged but unhappy upbringing of Roosevelt—she was the niece of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and distant cousin of her eventual husband, Franklin Roosevelt—on the East Coast and in Europe as well as the poverty-stricken, abusive childhood of Hickok in rural South Dakota. Roosevelt was normally demure, physically tall, and somewhat slender, while Hickok was loud, brash, and overweight. “[Hickok] reveled in food and drink, played a good game of poker, smoked a lot…and was capable of swearing a blue streak,” writes the author. “Unlike Eleanor, who kept strong emotions under control, Hick let it all out.” Indeed, the intellectual, emotional, and physical chemistry seemed out of sync on the surface. Quinn deftly explores how the unlikely relationship evolved, relying on correspondence between the women, oral histories in archives, various government documents, and numerous other sources that allow readers to learn a great deal about normally private affairs. The author’s exploration of Hickok’s journalism and government jobs offers detailed, fascinating human portraits of citizens caught in the grip of an extended financial depression. The benevolent and often daring initiatives of Roosevelt have been copiously documented for decades; Quinn sorts through the massive volume of material, making wise choices about how best to illuminate Roosevelt's character.
A relentlessly captivating study of two remarkable individuals who helped extend the roles of American women in the public policy realm.Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59420-540-8
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
PROFILES
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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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