An absorbing and poignant exploration of the human brain.
An acclaimed writer reflects on neurology, intuition, and Zen in this collection of essays and articles.
Shainberg, the author of multiple novels and nonfiction works, became obsessed with understanding his own neurology (“e.g., the brain that was producing the book”) while writing Memories of Amnesia in the 1970s. In researching that 1988 novel about the implications of brain damage, he had seven months of hospital access to neurosurgeons, patients, and staff. His half-century desire to understand the contradictions of the human mind is displayed in this compilation of essays and articles, many of which were first printed in the ’70s in publications like The New York Times Magazine and Harper’s Magazine. The titular essay centers on the ubiquitous sports phenomenon of hot streaks, where an athlete is on a transcendent run of making three-point shots in basketball, hammering home runs in baseball, or hitting bullseyes in archery. Regardless of the euphoria experienced by fans and teammates who witness these moments of athletic grandeur, “Hot Hands” are not a statistical reality, no matter how “brutal, sacrilegious, and seemingly inarguable” the phenomenon may be. In making this point, Shainberg references peer-reviewed studies. The author similarly uses the New York City Marathon in his essay “Going Nowhere Fast” to examine intuition-defying examples of how the “psychodrama” of sports conflicts with scientific reality. Another major theme of the book is the powerful neurological revelations offered through Zen practice. Essays, such as “The Violence of Just Sitting,” dissect Shainberg’s experiences with the devotion of “sesshin” and long periods of meditative sitting. In part a commemoration of the author’s distinguished career as an essayist, the volume pays particular attention to the interconnectedness of Zen, neurology, and creativity, ruminating on the mental processes behind Shainberg’s own work as well as others (an entire essay, for instance, centers on Zelda Fitzgerald). The collection excels at distilling the complexities of modern neuroscience into real-world examples in sports, literature, and spirituality. This emphasis on practicality is balanced with the literary sophistication and the gripping storytelling of a skilled novelist.
An absorbing and poignant exploration of the human brain.Pub Date: July 6, 2023
ISBN: 9798396049260
Page Count: 221
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Delightfully offbeat and unexpectedly moving.
An actor and comedian tells the story of her journey from being an unpaired “animal” to a “new mammal mother” in love.
After Slate completed her first book, “the issue of finding a partner…never rested and never allowed rest for [her] either.” Senses heightened, she had stepped into her most animal self and was on a quest to “fulfill [her] mammal instincts.” Loneliness and emotional vulnerability made her seek connection with neighborhood dogs and insights from books that promised to bring soulmates. When love did finally find her, the anxiety that he would reject her for being herself and “drinking tequila on a Saturday afternoon…then [having] a bath with my friend” was intense. After the pair became a couple and Slate became pregnant with the baby she called “the lifeform,” her neuroses—which the author mocks through an imaginary session with a psychologist—went into overdrive. Yet even as she wrestled with her fears, Slate also discovered that the body that was so often a “bay of doubt” was also becoming a “harbor of well-being” for the life-form to which she was attached. Then, during a time of “plague and disruption,” the author “exploded [her] vagina” to give birth, becoming not only a mother, but a “mammal with a soul that [was] born anew every day.” Though still haunted by a “purple-dark hole marking me in the afternoons,” Slate had become secure enough in the “nest” she had built for herself to see the hole more as a “bluish egg-thing” portending possibility. At times whimsical in its flights of fancy and always surprising in the moments of lyrical grace it offers, Slate’s book celebrates the transformative power of surrendering to love and life.
Delightfully offbeat and unexpectedly moving.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9780316263931
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
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