How President Jimmy Carter’s late younger brother, Billy, dealt with instant celebrity when the media stereotyped him as a southern “redneck” and “ol” boy” freak, as told by Billy’s son. Buddy writes of his own youth in a hardworking blue-collar family in the small, rural town of Plains, Ga. Billy had matured in the family warehouse business of processing peanut, soybean, and cotton crops, proving himself a successful manager and a serious, dedicated family provider. Billy also enjoyed relaxing with lifelong friends in his “station” (a combined auto-service shop and snack bar). When Jimmy returned home after ten years in the navy, he ran the family business before becoming governor of Georgia and president of the US. Suddenly, reporters, photographers, PR people, cheap souvenir stands, and thousands of tourists intruded on quiet Plains. When the media discovered Billy, who had lost control of his cherished warehouse, having a beer, a legend was born. He was offered unheard-of profitable deals and exploited as an amusing redneck character actor, selling Billy Beer and appearing on endless talk shows. Despite his leap in income, his family was mortified as they saw their beloved, witty father and husband turned into a buffoon. Billy descended into alcoholism and was discarded by his exploiters as he was harassed by the IRS and the FBI, investigating a suspicious deal with Libya. He eventually recovered and tried to rebuild his former life, even though the family business went bankrupt and Jimmy lost his reelection bid. Buddy, author of the novel The Search for Savin” Sam (not reviewed), shows a genuine talent for writing in this poignant, highly emotional profile of a complex man, adored by his family and friends, whose once contented life was changed by a media onslaught and a controlling disease. A touching account by a son who loved his father deeply and skillfully describes how fame and fortune can almost destroy a life.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-56352-553-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Longstreet
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
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
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.
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
© Copyright 2024 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.
