Next book

PRESIDENT REAGAN

THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME

In this monumental (752-page) review of Reagan's White House years, veteran Washington Post correspondent and Reagan-watcher Cannon (Reagan, 1982; Ronnie and Jessie, 1969) cements his reputation as one of the fairest and most knowledgeable reporters on the former President of his legacy. Although adhering primarily to a sympathetic view of the Great Communicator as an American visionary, Cannon still presents Reagan warts and all. From his first political victory, a landslide win over Pat Brown for governor of California, Reagan, Cannon shows, demonstrates his knack for reading an audience and being able to deliver a script. Elected President, he had the additional good fortune to arrive in Washington with a dedicated corps of aides who could prepare him, and protect him, extremely well. Patterns established in Reagan's earlier stint in public office survived the transition to the White House, with the nuts and bolts of governing delegated to trusted advisers such as Jim Baker, Michael Deaver, Ed Meese, and others, while the President was called in for policy decisions, to offer Hollywood anecdotes or touches of ``the vision thing,'' as then- Vice President George Bush referred to it, or to function as arbiter in the event of a dispute between factions-the result of which was invariably a compromise intended to mollify both parties. During his second term, Reagan's increasingly loose hand on the tiller, whether caused by disinterest or the ravages of old age, created crises large and small, the Iran-contra debacle among them. The historical highlights ranging from supply-side economics, deregulation, and tax reform to Nicaragua, Lebanon, and the Evil Empire are assessed by Cannon in detail, through published and private accounts and interviews recorded at the time and after the fact, with all major participants receiving the same insightful, objective attention. Complementing Garry Wills's Reagan's America (1986), this is a generous and informative commentary of a presidency that will not soon be forgotten. (Book-of-the-Month Dual Selection for July)

Pub Date: April 29, 1991

ISBN: 0-671-54294-X

Page Count: 752

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1991

Next book

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

Next book

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

Close Quickview