A thoroughly researched, if sometimes-daunting, technical survey.
A lawyer’s case for the centrality of infrastructure to the future of the United States.
As an attorney who specializes in construction defects and litigation against contractors and designers, Gravely is intimately familiar with the poor state of American infrastructure, which includes roads, buildings, electrical grids, sewage systems, and much more. In this, his debut book, he describes in painstaking detail how “our most essential resources have reached the end of their operable life” and are “failing without warning” at an increasingly alarming rate. Moreover, much of our infrastructure, built during the post–World War II economic boom, has failed to keep up with technological innovations, threatening the nation’s economy and security. The book’s first section provides a historical overview of the centrality of infrastructure to the health of civilizations. Investment in infrastructure is the common thread that connects ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to 20th-century Western superpowers, the author notes. Beyond meeting the pragmatic needs of governments and their citizens, infrastructure inspires and even “defines us,” Gravely asserts, as projects such as the Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Empire State Building, and the Erie Canal have become part of the nation’s identity. However, as the book’s second section details—with an unnerving number of specific examples—the country’s “cheap” and “fast” approach to infrastructure has led to “busted & rusted” bridges, overloaded and eroded dams and waterway locks, unhealthy drinking water, and shoddily constructed, uninspiring public schools and other buildings. After highlighting this near-dystopian state of affairs, the book’s final section looks at potential solutions.
Eschewing a partisan approach to infrastructure, the book blames both Republicans and Democrats at various points for failures to address problems head-on. The author dismisses China’s authoritarian approach to infrastructure projects—such as forcing people off of their land—but does discuss “what we can learn” from the country’s massive investments, which have created architectural wonders. The book is careful to emphasize that natural resources are also part of infrastructure and thus should be protected from unscrupulous development and extraction. The private sector, including Elon Musk’s vision of Starbase, Texas, is heralded as a viable path to innovative development that could bypass congressional stalemates in Washington. Overall, the book is written in the approachable, savvy language of a seasoned lawyer, expertly balancing readability with technical discussions of building and construction codes. With more than 1,000 footnotes, this well-researched book effectively makes its case by inundating readers with numerous examples of old, decrepit, or cheaply built infrastructure networks. It’s an engaging read, to be sure. However, it attempts to do more than a single book comfortably can, as it attempts not only to document America’s failed infrastructure, but also to provide readers with a narrative of infrastructure development throughout history as well as policy ideas for the future. Although each part stands well on its own, the three sections combined may overwhelm readers. Still, the book more than succeeds in making its argument that “the future of America depends on the decisions we make today.”
A thoroughly researched, if sometimes-daunting, technical survey.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Sutton Hart Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
