An inspiring story of beating the odds.
A motivational autobiography of the nation’s first African-American dean of a major medical school.
Wilson’s life traces a remarkable arc. Born in Massachusetts in 1936 to a father who fled South Carolina to escape a lynching, the author had many hurdles in front of him from the beginning. However, the successful life he subsequently carved out with determination, hard work and honesty proves that a strong sense of self can launch a person beyond limitations. Except for the final two chapters, with their neatly packaged lessons in leadership, this book consists of a straightforward account of Wilson’s life, from birth to retirement. From the age of nine, after a visit from a local physician to treat his terrible case of pneumonia, Wilson knew that he wanted to be a doctor. Forget that this was 1945 and long before the civil-rights movement; ignore the fact that a few years later his elementary school principal would think it more appropriate for him to attend the local trade school rather than the college-preparatory high school. Wilson knew what he wanted to do and had the intelligence and tenacity to go after it. After college at Harvard, where he was one of only nine African-American students on campus, Wilson landed at Tufts University Medical School in 1958, at a time when minorities made up about two percent of the medical-school student population nationwide. Wilson was forced to blaze his own trail, a fact magnified by the fact that there were no African-American faculty or professionals in the school to serve as role models or mentors. The book includes poignant moments in the author’s life: providing medical care to the very same people who would not rent a house to him because of his race; developing his reputation as a leading researcher in New York; and becoming the first African-American Chief of Gastroenterology at the University of Illinois School of Medicine in Chicago. Through it all, Wilson faced discrimination from those who could not imagine an African-American man as the dean of a major medical school, no matter how stellar his qualifications. Nevertheless, Wilson became the dean of the University of Maryland medical school in 1991 and overhauled its direction, culture and curriculum before retiring 15 years later. This autobiography is heavy on the literal details of his accomplishments and less fulfilling in terms of providing lessons for the reader to take away from his experiences. Still, it exemplifies how strong focus and resolve can bring what seems impossible within grasp.
An inspiring story of beating the odds.Pub Date: May 21, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4392-2268-3
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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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