In this well-informed, illuminating book, Oakes shows us the value of consuming less in order to know more.
A knowledgeable study of fasting, which has a long history and a layered present.
Too often, our society appears to be about consumption to the point of excess, even while we know that splurging and bingeing do not offer lasting fulfilment. There is another way, suggests Oakes, publisher of the Evergreen Review, in this interesting book. Fasting, the decision to temporarily abstain from eating or radically reduce one’s intake of food, can bring a new appreciation of life, as long as it’s done sensibly. In fact, notes the author, it can be an undertaking that “opens the way to growth.” Oakes punctuates his examination of the cultural history and social meaning of fasting with reminiscences of his first weeklong fast (although he allowed himself tea, coffee, and vegetable broth), providing a personal element to the narrative. All the major religions include some aspect of fasting. The Christian Bible is peppered with examples, and in Judaism, fasting is connected with mourning. Some religious fanatics have starved themselves to death in the search for divine insight, but Oakes sees them as merely deluded. He also looks at people who have gone on hunger strikes for political reasons, and he notes that their record of success is decidedly mixed. Fasting does not work as a dieting technique, but it is useful for detoxing, refreshing, and rebalancing the body. A key element is its private, voluntary nature, which entails a break from the daily routine that can lead to a sense of contemplation and renewal. Oakes sets all this out in lucid, poetic terms, and while the book might not be for everyone, it will appeal to those who are ready to question the value of overconsumption and indulgence.
In this well-informed, illuminating book, Oakes shows us the value of consuming less in order to know more.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9781668017418
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.
Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.
“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780063304413
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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