Phelps provides useful perspective on 18th-century mores that made spies like Hale initially reviled by both sides, but his...
A new look at the Connecticut preacher’s son who became an icon of patriotic sacrifice.
True-crime specialist Phelps (I’ll Be Watching You, 2008, etc.) delves deeply into the comportment and character of Nathan Hale (1755–76). Covering his studies at Yale and his fulfilling early career as a schoolmaster in the bustling port town of New London, the author shows an amiable, intelligent, athletic and well-educated young gentleman. Hale’s dedication to his Christian faith was soon to be matched by his passion for the cause of his “injured, bleeding country” in the throes of rebellion against its colonial masters. But he also had moments of boredom and self-questioning, relieved by any number of romantic dalliances or an occasional bout of serious boozing with former Yale classmates and other friends. He was swept into military service first in the militia, then became an officer in George Washington’s army, with which he participated in the siege of Boston in 1775. After Washington’s forces withdrew from New York City and the English occupied it, Hale volunteered for a mission behind enemy lines on Long Island to gather information on the British high command’s resources and possible strategies. The rest is history, and Phelps makes no real inroads on the major questions: Why was Hale so easily tricked into revealing his mission to Robert Rogers, a well-known British military man? Where exactly in New York was he hung from a tree after uttering those famous sentiments about having “only one life” to give? (Sentiments that were probably paraphrased for posterity.) Where was his body buried in an unmarked grave? Could Hale have actually started the fire that devastated lower New York? All mysteries still.
Phelps provides useful perspective on 18th-century mores that made spies like Hale initially reviled by both sides, but his narrative could use more depth.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-37641-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
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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