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RUBINSTEIN

A LIFE IN MUSIC

Sachs is explicitly out to set the record straight in this detailed, scholarly biography of the legendary pianist. At the end of his long life and almost as lengthy career as one of the century's greatest keyboard virtuosos, Arthur Rubinstein (18871982) authored two bestselling autobiographies, My Young Years and My Many Years. Readers who mistrusted the tone of continuous joie de vivre that characterized these books will find this serious ``life and works'' by music biographer Sachs (Toscanini, 1978, etc.) a welcome corrective. Rubinstein was not above fudging, misremembering, or glossing over the facts if it served his purpose of a more congenial self-portrayal. His many and notorious love affairs involved more infidelity than he let on. He was a thoughtless (if guilt-ridden) son, a mediocre, self-involved father, and an errant husband. Sachs is no basher, however, and he never forgets that this big baby was not a bad man. He was also the possessor of a huge, God-given talent that manifested itself before Rubinstein was five and that, to his credit, he never abused. And while the fan-magazine crowd will enjoy the extensive coverage of Rubinstein's international celebrity, social life, and numerous amours, music lovers will find nourishment in Sachs's extensive research into Rubinstein's concert vita, his artistic development, and his repertoire choices. Best of all, particularly given the difficulty of writing meaningfully about how any given pianist actually sounded, is the extensive discussion (one-fifth of the book's length) of Rubinstein's ``recorded legacy,'' accompanied by a truly excellent discography (compiled by Donald Manildi, curator of the International Piano Archives) of Rubinstein on 78, LP, CD, and even reproducing piano roll. Sachs's comments on his own experience with Rubinstein's playing, both live and on record, are balanced, thoughtful, and honest in their overt subjectivity. A book with something for almost everyone, and a worthy incentive to investigate Rubinstein's unique artistry. (photos, not seen)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-8021-1579-9

Page Count: 528

Publisher: Grove

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1995

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NIGHT

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. 

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance.

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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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

FROM MEAN STREETS TO WALL STREET

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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