While Swayze’s candor may prove unpalatable for some, her memoir makes a worthy addition to the canon of literature that...
The wife of actor Patrick Swayze (1952–2009) shares bittersweet memories of caring for her husband during his battle with cancer.
Although the cover shows the author smiling as she pets a horse, the narrative reveals a much more complex story about the love that sustained a couple through a 34-year marriage. Swayze pulls no punches as she recounts the rocky patches that she navigated with her star husband. In 2003, his drinking became so problematic that she finally left; even after reuniting a year later, the two struggled to recapture their early romance. All that changed, however, when Swayze was diagnosed with cancer in early 2008. Always a devoted partner throughout their many endeavors, the author redirected her energy to arranging top medical care, assisting Swayze during the filming of a TV series and tackling home-nursing responsibilities. With unflagging cheer and the quality of “Sisu” (courage) so esteemed by her Finnish family, she undoubtedly made her husband’s final days as comfortable as possible, and her earnest narrative conveys the deep love that she and her husband shared. Sadly, Swayze began to deteriorate in 2009, succumbing to a barrage of infections that weakened his already compromised immune system and made it impossible to continue chemotherapy. These portions of the book are incredibly painful to read, and the final chapter and epilogue are especially commendable for their refusal to indulge in platitudes: “I wish I had something good, or enlightening, or even remotely encouraging to say about the process of losing someone. But I don’t. There is nothing fun about it, nothing good, nothing hopeful.”
While Swayze’s candor may prove unpalatable for some, her memoir makes a worthy addition to the canon of literature that honestly assesses grief without sentimentalizing it.Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4391-9635-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2011
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
A standout immigrant coming-of-age story.
In her first nonfiction book, novelist Grande (Dancing with Butterflies, 2009, etc.) delves into her family’s cycle of separation and reunification.
Raised in poverty so severe that spaghetti reminded her of the tapeworms endemic to children in her Mexican hometown, the author is her family’s only college graduate and writer, whose honors include an American Book Award and International Latino Book Award. Though she was too young to remember her father when he entered the United States illegally seeking money to improve life for his family, she idolized him from afar. However, she also blamed him for taking away her mother after he sent for her when the author was not yet 5 years old. Though she emulated her sister, she ultimately answered to herself, and both siblings constantly sought affirmation of their parents’ love, whether they were present or not. When one caused disappointment, the siblings focused their hopes on the other. These contradictions prove to be the narrator’s hallmarks, as she consistently displays a fierce willingness to ask tough questions, accept startling answers, and candidly render emotional and physical violence. Even as a girl, Grande understood the redemptive power of language to define—in the U.S., her name’s literal translation, “big queen,” led to ridicule from other children—and to complicate. In spelling class, when a teacher used the sentence “my mamá loves me” (mi mamá me ama), Grande decided to “rearrange the words so that they formed a question: ¿Me ama mi mamá? Does my mama love me?”
A standout immigrant coming-of-age story.Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4516-6177-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
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