An edifying analysis that’s exacting but fair.
Debut author Gonzalez, with co-author Lee, offers a searching reflection on the tension between South Korea’s embrace of globalization and its ancient culture.
When California teacher and guidance counselor Gonzalez first visited South Korea in the 1990s, he was astonished by its technological sophistication, which, by many measures, surpassed the United States’. He lived and taught there for 5 years, starting in 2012, and was impressed by “hard-working, entrepreneurial, goal-oriented, practical, and sacrificial Korean people” in a nation that historically weathered war and financial crisis to become a fiercely competitive player on the world stage. At the heart of South Korea’s success, he says, is its cultural emphasis on efficiency—a “way of life” for many citizens, who place extraordinary importance on conventional career accomplishment. However, for a culture with a long history of Confucian and Taoist traditions, the shift toward more traditionally Western values has come at a steep cost, according to the author, who thoughtfully investigates the ways in which a focus on efficiency and competition has negatively affected university admissions and infrastructure, to name two examples. Even more worrisome, he says, many “longstanding traditions seem to be declining,” including the valorization of unity and harmony, reverence for elders, and other traditional family values. Gonzalez astutely charts this tension, and overall, his appraisal of South Korea is impressively comprehensive, encompassing many aspects of its complex culture, even including eating habits. However, he has a tendency to bury the reader under far too much granular detail; for instance, he dwells at protracted length on recent industrial accidents—much more than is necessary to make his argument. Nevertheless, Gonzalez combines his rigorous research with a depth of personal experience, lucidly presented in this admiring but critical account.
An edifying analysis that’s exacting but fair.Pub Date: Dec. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-67423-215-7
Page Count: 442
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A host of well-drawn characters and a mass of historical detail make this 12th-century adventure entertaining despite its...
In all of Southwark, there's no more skilled saddlemaker than Master Mainard, married to shrewish Bertrild but deeply in love with Sabina, the blind whore who lives in the Old Priory Guesthouse, a brothel run by beautiful Magdalene la Bâtarde (A Mortal Bane, 1999). Mainard has installed Sabina in his home, but it seems to all the better part of discretion for Sabina to return to the Guesthouse after Bertrild is found stabbed to death in the back yard. Ensconced in the Old Priory, Sir Bellamy of Itchen (commonly called Bell), an emissary of the Bishop of Winchester and Magdalene's besotted admirer, is attempting to find Bertrild's killer. At length Bell reduces the list of likely suspects to the five men who ply their trade in the area of Mainard's workshop, from which the murder weapon had been stolen. But Bell's investigation is further complicated by the news that Bertrild had been doing a thriving business in blackmail; by a second killing; and by the arrival of Bertrild's uncle Sir Druerie, with his own decided ideas about the murderer's identity.
A host of well-drawn characters and a mass of historical detail make this 12th-century adventure entertaining despite its hopelessly confusing mishmash of a plot.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-86998-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An odd but sometimes-moving imagining of the nocturnal thoughts of the presidents of the United States.
A fanciful look at the dreams of U.S. presidents throughout history.
Phillips, a painter and multimedia artist, offers readers a mix of fact and fiction in a book that’s not so much about the inner lives as it is about the sleeping lives of America’s leaders. Working backward from Donald Trump to George Washington (including separate essays for each Grover Cleveland administration), Phillips’ essays imagine each man’s dreams about various subjects, include his childhood, his parents, and sex. Each essay attempts to capture the personality of the president at hand, and some bring in the viewpoints of other people, as in a dialogue between John and Abigail Adams or the musings of Zachary Taylor’s horse, Whitey. The chapter on Gerald Ford has a blank space in lieu of an essay, while Millard Fillmore, who was also not elected to the office of president, gets a full examination. The essays’ focuses aren’t always what one might expect; for example, John F. Kennedy’s essay is about living under the shadow of his father’s ambitions, and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s is about the women in his life. This multimedia coffee-table book is full of the author’s own full-color paintings and illustrations, painted in styles ranging from surreal to abstract, and their effectiveness varies. Mainly, though, this book highlights the challenges of blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. In his quest to enter the presidents’ dreams, Phillips generally gets the history right and does a good job of capturing the essence of many presidential personalities and relationships. However, some of the sexual references can be overly graphic, as can some bodily descriptions, such as one about Cleveland’s testicles. As a result, this book can be unsettling at times. Still, its imaginativeness makes one wonder what the author would have made of the dreams of the current president, who defeated the man who called him “Sleepy Joe.”
An odd but sometimes-moving imagining of the nocturnal thoughts of the presidents of the United States.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-57-861384-0
Page Count: 215
Publisher: Black Book
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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