In an age when the religious life is foreign and mysterious to many, these self-revelations provide a worthwhile focal point...
Often poignant memoir of the author’s eight years with the Jesuits and his eventual decision to seek a different path.
Looking back on his entry into the Society of Jesus and the spiritual and emotional adventure that followed, Krivak tells his story from the perspective of his first, grueling “long retreat,” a time of silence and prayer specifically designed to further a novice’s clarity of calling during the initial year. That retreat was deeply formative for the author and shaped much of his journey as a Jesuit. Raised in northeast Pennsylvania, Krivak broke away from working-class roots to study poetry and philosophy before turning to the religious life. The chapters on his first year as a novice, detailing both the monotonous work of acting as beadle and the more introspective examination of his prayer life, set the tone. Throughout the book, the author shares his deepest fears, hopes and swings of emotion as he struggled with his calling. His studies and work took him from homeless shelters to inner-city hospitals and college campuses, from upstate New York to Russia and Slovakia. He describes the people he met and the situations he encountered with the skill of a storyteller, in prose that is erudite without being dry or aloof. His account of examining his soul, though fairly typical of this genre, is well-executed and enjoyable. We know from the first pages that Krivak fell in love and left the Jesuits, but the conclusion is emotionally charged nonetheless.
In an age when the religious life is foreign and mysterious to many, these self-revelations provide a worthwhile focal point for understanding its attractions and its pitfalls.Pub Date: March 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-374-16606-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2008
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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