A sturdy narrative of one woman’s awakening and strength in the early 20th century as she witnessed the vast societal...
The biography of an Indian royal princess, born in Britain, who found a higher purpose as she discovered her heritage.
BBC radio and TV journalist Anand devotes the first part of the book to a brief, comprehensive look at the history of the Raj in India. The story begins with the deposition of 11-year-old Maharajah Duleep Singh from his throne in the vast Punjab, where Hindus and Muslims peacefully shared common language and culture. Duleep became Queen Victoria’s favorite, and his life in exile was extremely comfortable. In fact, royal favor allowed Duleep to live far beyond his means, gambling and incurring massive debts. Years of letters from him and his children demanding government support indicate just how well these displaced royals were treated. Princess Sophia (1876-1948), his youngest and Victoria’s godchild, led an enchanted life after being born in exile in England; her quiet charm and designation as a royal princess ensured primary status at all events. She and her siblings had no real feeling for India until Sophia’s sister coaxed her into visiting their homeland. Being exposed to such poverty and deprivation drove her to reject her life as a socialite and seek those who needed protection. At first, her work on behalf of the lascars, Indian dockworkers in London, satisfied that need, and she helped build a safe haven for them. Eventually, Sophia awoke to the women’s suffrage movement and found her voice. She dedicated her name and status to the movement, joining in census and tax resistance, and she marched next to suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, daring authorities to arrest her as she fearlessly demanded women’s rights.
A sturdy narrative of one woman’s awakening and strength in the early 20th century as she witnessed the vast societal changes in India and England.Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1408835456
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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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