An entertaining bucket-list tale.
A quirky list of accomplishments in memoir form.
“Being an immigrant is akin to surviving a near-death experience—minus the excitement,” writes debut author Shifrin. “You constantly feel like you were given a second shot at life, and you want that shot to amount to something spectacular.” Originally from Russia, the author was turning 30 when she set out to write this book. She explains how her life was full of excitement, especially her 20s, which she calls “sloppy, sexy, sometimes sweet.” In preparation for her birthday, Shifrin established a list of all the things she needed to do before she hit 30. The book gathers the items on the list, each one with an accompanying story. Among the goals she set: take a writing class, live in a different country, land a late-night comedy set, fall in love (for real), buy real furniture, have a dramatic airport reunion, learn how to dress my body, etc. “I am living proof,” she writes, “that you can blossom from an awkward caterpillar into an awkward butterfly—a sharply dressed awkward butterfly who commands attention because she is comfortable in her clothing and looks like a consummate, trendy professional.” Shifrin continually tries to grasp why any said item on the list is integral to her development. When she moved to Taiwan for a “shitty job,” she quickly realized that even though she managed to leave America and live abroad, the abuse she endured at her work was not worth the limited opportunities her job offered her. The author also shuffled through a series of uncommitted relationships before she found the man with everything she looked for in a partner. Throughout, Shifrin gives readers a taste of what successful self-deprecation looks like; she constantly pokes fun at herself, analyzing the situations she put herself in and figuring out how they affected her journey.
An entertaining bucket-list tale.Pub Date: July 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-12971-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
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
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
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