A fascinating look at a little-remembered contributor to 20th-century history. A protÇgÇ of Franklin Roosevelt's, Welles entered the State Department as part of the ambassadorial entourage in Japan and then became a Latin American specialist, defusing troublesome situations in Cuba, Central America, and the Dominican Republic. These experiences led to his appointment as assistant secretary of state for Latin America, where he helped author the ``Good Neighbor'' policy that supplanted the nearly 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine. Eventually reaching the post of under-secretary of state to Cordell Hull (with whom he was at constant loggerheads because, in Hull's words, ``he thinks so fast, he moves so rapidly, he gets way out in front''), Welles helped write both the UN Charter and its forerunner, the Atlantic Charter. In the meantime, he pursued such unlikely exploits as trying to contain WW II after the invasion of Poland and securing the independence of the State of Israel in concert with Chaim Weizmann. Despite this stellar professional career, however, Welles's private life was a shambles, with three marriages and rampant alcoholism. His drunken homosexual propositioning of a Pullman porter on a presidential train led to his forced resignation in 1943. As the author of this biography (a former New York Times correspondent) is the subject's own son, it is not surprising that Welles fils tries to deflect much of the negative press his father received, but he is also to be commended for seeing his father's weaknesses and not pulling punches when discussing them. In fact, the author's appearance in the book acts both as comic relief, particularly in his recitation of childhood episodes, and as a point of deeply informed, sympathetic insight on the end of Welles's life. The political intrigue revealed in this biography alone makes it a gripping tale; the author's eye for balancing public and private lives nicely clarifies what could have been a murky read. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Jan. 19, 1998
ISBN: 0-312-17440-3
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1997
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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