A compelling read for fans of Collins and/or those confronting their own addictive behavior.
The famed recording artist recalls her past struggles with overeating and alcoholism.
In her latest memoir, Collins (Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music, 2011, etc.) treads some familiar territory covered in her previous books, referencing love affairs with Stephen Stills and others, her many musical triumphs, and the devastating impact of her son’s suicide. More urgently, the author focuses on her addictions, specifically her long-standing ones with excessive alcohol and food consumption. The chapters cover specific decades of her life up through the 1980s, as Collins highlights the trajectory of her accomplishments in relation to the course of her illness and extreme forms of indulgence: several bottles of vodka consumed each week, frequent episodes of bingeing and purging. Despite these issues, however, her career continued to soar. “While I was performing my anxieties and fears disappeared; the music gave me peace of mind, the melodies and lyrics gave me wings,” she writes. “And the pain of the increase in my drinking and the growing evidence that I had a problem with food did not seem to impact my career.” She alternates her recovery story with biographical sketches of renowned diet and nutrition authorities such as Robert Atkins, Andrew Weil, Jean Nidtech, and Adelle Davis along with notable historical figures such as English Romantic poet Lord Byron, who also confronted an extreme eating disorder. For the most part, Collins is a graceful writer. In a memoir that is equal parts confessional drama and inspirational self-help book, she shares an engaging tale and provides some meaningful information for readers who may be struggling with similar issues. However, the alternating structure often feels contrived and may lead readers to question whether she was seeking ways to stretch her own narrative or perhaps had two books in mind.
A compelling read for fans of Collins and/or those confronting their own addictive behavior.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-54131-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
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
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
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