An impressively reported, smoothly written book that nonetheless feels airy in its content.
Cook (The Dad Report: Fathers, Sons, and Baseball Families, 2017 etc.) chronicles the 1947 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, approaching this narrow slice of sports history from an unusual angle.
That year’s Series resonates with the author for a few reasons: the quality of play in the two New York City ballparks, the historic nature of Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers becoming the first African-American to participate in the event, and the fact that it was the first televised Series. The overriding narrative line, however, involves the unexpectedly significant roles of four under-the-radar baseball players—Al Gionfriddo and Cookie Lavagetto for the Dodgers and Bill Bevens and Snuffy Stirnweiss for the Yankees—as well as the controversial managers for each team, Burt Shotton for the Dodgers (filling in for the suspended, better-known Leo Durocher) and Bucky Harris for the Yankees. Cook traces the lives of all six men before 1947 and then illuminates their roles during the Series. “The six of them played key roles in a World Series that Joe DiMaggio called ‘the most exciting ever.’ ” In the third portion of the book, the author explains how his brief interval in the spotlight affected each man until his death. To be sure, all of his subjects led interesting lives in one way or another, but how they reached the Major Leagues and what happened to each after 1947 may only appeal to die-hard fans of baseball history. As a result, Cook’s unusual approach might limit the audience. The narrative works best when the author narrates the drama of the seven-game series, which the Yankees won. For readers unfamiliar with the Robinson saga, the compact account might provide a gateway to further reading.
An impressively reported, smoothly written book that nonetheless feels airy in its content.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-11656-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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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