The author provides a host of intriguing insights into a misunderstood woman. Those who have read other accounts will want...
Pasternak (Lara: The Untold Love Story and Inspiration for Dr. Zhivago, 2017, etc.) seeks to “strip away decades of grotesque caricature” about Wallis Simpson (1896-1986).
The author offers a variety of thought-provoking arguments to counter the accepted wisdom about Simpson. Condemned as the woman who stole the king, Simpson’s biggest mistake was latching onto Prince Edward’s star; his own father said he was unsuited to be king, a sentiment echoed by others in positions of power. Regarding his kingly duties, he was faithful; he truly felt sorrow for his people as they suffered through rampant unemployment and perpetual hunger. The people loved him, but the establishment did not. Stanley Baldwin, holding all the cards as prime minister, played a sinister part in rejecting all attempts by Edward to retain his throne. He utterly rejected the possibility of a Morganatic marriage in which Simpson would have been titled but never become queen and any offspring could not inherit—though the last was irrelevant as neither party was capable of producing an heir. Edward was besotted with Simpson and called her many times a day and whined when she wasn’t with him; he was consistently needy and constantly sought the attention denied him by both his parents. He was a Jazz Age man, given to drinking, dancing, and generally latching onto other men’s wives. The author clearly shows how his love of American ways and cafe society turned most aristocrats against him. He was not bright, and when the couple showed an interest in fascism, it was only because it was the chic thing to do; he was too vacuous to take to any political creed. For all that was said about Simpson, Pasternak’s most illuminating point is that she knew how to soothe him and helped him understand the necessity of his duties; unfortunately, she was unable to curb his obsession with her.
The author provides a host of intriguing insights into a misunderstood woman. Those who have read other accounts will want to look at this other side.Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-9844-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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