Little to keep you absorbed when second-rate palace intrigue is the only thing on the menu.
From English journalist de Courcy, an un-thrilling biography of the daughters of Lord Curzon, whose lives seem an exercise in privilege with only a measure of excitement.
English statesman and viceroy of India, Lord Curzon was a peer of the realm with a substantial boodle. Chancellor of Cambridge and rector of Glasgow University, with a backbone as supple as reinforced concrete, he was anxious for a male heir but found himself instead with daughters Irene, Cynthia, and Alexandra. Here, he’s portrayed as a distant father, aloof and stiff, but unconstrained by the rules of marriage, and his daughters apparently also displayed his gamut of personality types. They were neither milquetoasts nor shrinking violets, fire-breathers nor buckers of the status quo, of which they were happy beneficiaries: they had fat trusts from their maternal grandfather, allowing them a latitude others couldn’t dream of. With the death of the girls’ mother, Curzon grew even more removed from his daughters, who very much took on lives of their own, and after his remarriage, he became to them “little more than a disappointing presence.” One daughter became involved in a forgettable way with the Wallis Simpson affair with Edward VIII, and another devoted her years to charity work, a choice elevating her to near-sainthood in this brood. The third, Baba—Alexandra—had a long, convoluted, and sordid relationship with the dreadful Tom Mosley, a drummer throughout Britain of support for fascism who, says Baba, had “stimulating provocative ideas” and a “sharp-edge wit.” There are unexpected glimpses of how easily influenced the policies of English government could be, but there are just as many crises over whether to wear a gray or black jacket with striped pants for dinner.
Little to keep you absorbed when second-rate palace intrigue is the only thing on the menu.Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-621061-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2002
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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