Biography.

NONFICTION

****

Strength in What Remains

A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness

By Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder, the Pulitzer Prize--winning author of The Soul of a New Machine (1981), was researching Partners in Health, the organization created by Dr. Paul Farmer to eradicate preventable disease in Third World countries, for his book Mountains Beyond Mountains when he met a young African refugee with a shocking and uplifting story. This young man, known only as Deogratias ("Thanks Be to God" in Latin), is the subject of Kidder's latest work.

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RECENTLY REVIEWED My Detachment (*** Nov/dec 2005).

THE TOPIC: The son of a poor Tutsi farmer in Burundi, third-year medical student Deogratias barely escapes the carnage when genocidal conflict between Hutus and Tutsis spreads from neighboring Rwanda in 1993. He flees to the United States with the help of a wealthy friend, but what he finds is a far cry from the American Dream. With only $200 in his pocket and little knowledge of English, Deo takes a menial job delivering groceries on Park Avenue for $15 per day and sleeps in Central Park at night. He is unexpectedly taken in by a generous couple and finishes college and medical school, but, dually haunted and motivated by the violence he left behind, Deo joins Partners in Health and courageously returns to Burundi to establish a free clinic.

Random House. 277 pages. $25. ISBN 9781400066216

Minneapolis Star Tribune *****

"This seemingly impossible journey from nightmare to American Dream, from the killing fields of central Africa in the mid-1990s to the privileged halls of academia, is at the heart of an inspiring story told by Kidder, one of the masters of narrative journalism. ... Kidder's account of Deo's escape on foot from the machete-wielding Hutus is as exciting and disturbing a piece of writing as one will ever encounter--in any genre." STEPHEN J. LYONS

NY Times Book Review *****

"That 63-year-old tracy Kidder may have just written his finest work--indeed, one of the truly stunning books I've read this year--is proof that the secret to memorable nonfiction is so often the writer's readiness to be surprised. ... Kidder's rendering of what Deo endured and survived just before he boarded that plane for New York is one of the most powerful passages of modern nonfiction." RON SUSKIND

Boston Globe ****

"Kidder tells Deo's story with characteristic skill and sensitivity in a complex narrative that moves back and forth through time to build a richly layered portrait. ... Kidder's abiding preoccupation is the everyday heroism of ordinary people, and his latest is rife with such unsung heroes, such as the anonymous Hutu woman who saved Deo's life by pretending to be his mother in order to smuggle him out of the country." DANIEL AKST

Chicago Tribune ****

"As it moves along--the grisly past is a backdrop but ever-present in the way it shapes Deo's life--Strength in What Remains builds in magnitude and poignancy. It is moving without being uplifting, because Kidder has the intelligence to avoid any hint of the saccharine within its pages. Hard and unanswerable questions are posed, after all." ART WINSLOW

Seattle Times ****

"[An] African medical student's story of struggle, redemption and return, a narrative infused with a broad, universal appeal and occasional touches of brilliance. ... [Deo's] story reaffirms our hope that one person can make a difference." BHARTI KIRCHNER

Washington Post ****

"Kidder by no means tells a seamless story. ... But [despite] flaws, the sheer power of Deo's story shines through. We cannot help but be in awe of this gentle cicerone who survives war's ghastly labyrinth to emerge a better man." MARIE ARANAM

Miami Herald ***

"A deeply felt yet deeply flawed book. ... Deo never feels real; he comes across less as a person than a symbol in Kidder's moral quest." SUSAN COMNINOS

CRITICAL SUMMARY

Saluted as "a high priest of the narrative arts" (New York Times Book Review) and "a master of creative nonfiction" (Dallas Morning News), Kidder has written an unforgettable tribute to the resilience of the human spirit. Riveting, sad, terrible, but ultimately optimistic, Kidder's harrowing descriptions of Central Africa's bloody ethnic hostilities and Deo's amazing survival have been hailed by critics as some of the finest writing in contemporary nonfiction. The Washington Post objected to Kidder's frequent narrative jumps, while the Miami Herald remained unconvinced by Deo's saintly virtues. However, the Minneapolis Star Tribune hailed Strength "an instant classic," and most critics agreed. "Let's put this tragedy behind us," says Deo, "because remembering is not going to benefit anyone." Readers will surely beg to differ.

ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS

The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World (2003): Kidder's engrossing biography of physician and anthropologist Paul Farmer explores his passion and drive to alleviate suffering in some of the poorest places on earth.

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****

True Compass

A Memoir

By Edward M. Kennedy

Edward M. Kennedy served as a U.S. senator for Massachusetts for 46 years. He died of brain cancer in August.

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THE TOPIC: Ted Kennedy was the survivor of his storied clan: not only did he escape the grisly fate of his older brothers, but he endured a series of scandals and setbacks to become the third longest-serving senator in American history, as well as one of the most influential. While covering his entire life, Kennedy's autobiography is notable for its focus on family, particularly his relationship with his father, Joseph. While Kennedy discloses few gossipy revelations, he does address his ongoing regret over the accident at Chappaquiddick that some say ended his hopes for the presidency. He also reflects on the personalities of the many political notables he came to know over the years, including presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama.

Twelve. 532 pages. $35. ISBN: 9780446539258

Los Angeles Times *****

"sen. Edward M. Kennedy's recent death was such a loss, and True Compass, his touchingly candid, big-hearted and altogether superb memoir, demonstrates precisely why. Completed in the shadow of the senator's own mortality, this is a book whose clarity of recollection and expression entitles it to share in the lineage established by America's first great memoir of public life--The Autobiography of U. S. Grant, which he wrote while himself dying of cancer." TIM RUTTEN

Boston Globe ****

"After a life chronicled in tabloid chatter and often vicious editorial cartoons, Kennedy tells his own story here, expansively yet selectively, portraying himself as a dedicated, loving, flesh-and-blood figure who, despite being born well, had to prove himself. ... This is a book that all but the most toxic Kennedy critic could love." MATTHEW V. STORIN

Entertainment Weekly ****

"If the writing about his marriage and Chappaquiddick in True Compass does not exactly seem introspective, neither does it ring false, and the rest of his life story--filled with colorful tales of his siblings and inside-the-Beltway detail--makes for a thoughtful, intermittently gut-wrenching read." TINA JORDAN

Guardian (UK) ****

"True Compass has the narrative drive of a book written in the shadow of the grim reaper. ... For anyone who has grown up with the fables of Jack and Jackie, this is an absorbing tour of the Kennedy backlot." ROBERT MCCRUM

New York Times ****

"[He] writes in these pages with searching candor about the losses, joys and lapses of his life. ... The tribulations of the Kennedy family have frequently been likened to something out of Shakespeare or a Greek tragedy, but Teddy Kennedy manages the difficult task in these pages of conveying the profoundly ordinary, human dimensions of his and his family's losses." MICHIKO KAKUTANI

Washington Post ***

"True Compass is an engaging and at times moving book, but like virtually all political autobiographies these days, it has the air of having been written by committee. ... Fortunately, though, there really isn't all that much gassing here, because what interests Kennedy most is his family, press-the-flesh politicking and the ups and downs of his own uncommonly interesting life." JONATHAN YARDLEY

Times (UK) **

"True Compass has the lethally bland narrative tone of the ghostwritten US presidential autobiography, with its mandatory reflections on the importance of religious faith and public service, and its subject's complementary aversion to self-exploration. ... But for the rest, True Compass shows us the worst side of the Kennedy clan in all its hauteur, self-importance and tawdry sense of entitlement." STEPHEN ROBINSON

CRITICAL SUMMARY

Few reviewers doubted the significance of Kennedy's memoir, written in collaboration with Ron Powers, and most viewed it as an interesting read. The Los Angeles Times rated it as an American political classic on par with The Autobiography of U. S. Grant. But the Washington Post deflated the comparison, claiming that while Grant had some help writing his book, Kennedy's clearly shows the influence of his ghostwriter and should be viewed as a typical (if sometimes fascinating) celebrity autobiography. While most critics tended to side with Yardley on the book's literary merit, they all appreciated the various ideas and anecdotes from its pages, suggesting that most readers with an interest in American politics will, too.

***

The Wilderness Warrior

Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America

By Douglas Brinkley

Award-winning historian Douglas Brinkley has written about Jimmy Carter, Dean Acheson, Hunter S. Thompson, John Kerry, Rosa Parks, and James Forrestal, among many other historical, cultural, and political figures. Recently reviewed: The Great Deluge, about Hurricane Katrina (**** Nov/Dec 2006).

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THE TOPIC: Theodore Roosevelt's deeply held views on conservation in America sprang from a childhood of privilege. Free to pursue his own interests, the asthmatic, nearsighted Teddy grew to love the outdoors. Later, influenced by John James Audubon and Charles Darwin, Roosevelt tackled conservation issues with the same spirit and determination that led him to become America's 26th president. In the process, he established--not without much controversy and debate--national forests, bird preserves, game preserves, national parks, and national monuments. In The Wilderness Warrior, Brinkley explores Roosevelt's lasting legacy to conservation and the contradictions in Roosevelt's views on hunting, preservation, and growth in postfrontier America.

Harper. 960 pages. $34.99. ISBN: 9780060565282

Boston Globe ****

"This compelling and impressively well-researched book provides new information about the preservation of cliff dwellers' and other archaeological sites as well as the saving of the Petrified Forest, sequoias, redwoods, and selected Native American ancestral lands. It is by far the best and most detailed story of the Roosevelt administration's fight for conservation." KATHLEEN DALTON

Minneapolis Star Tribune ****

"Brinkley, a professional historian who ranks as one of the most prolific academics writing books for general readerships, has performed superb research at archives across the nation to fill the book with compelling details." STEVE WEINBERG

New York Times ****

"[F]or the patient reader Mr. Brinkley's fervent enthusiasm for his material eventually prevails over the book's sprawling data and slow pace. ... [Brinkley] delves into the philosophical contradictions inherent in a man whose Darwinian thinking led him both to revere and kill the same creatures." JANET MASLIN

NY Times Book Review ***

"Encyclopedic inclusiveness and repetition occasionally mar narrative movement. ... What this book makes abundantly clear is that [Roosevelt's] inspiration, vision and courage were as rare 100 years ago as they are today and that without them our country would be uglier, and poorer." JONATHAN ROSEN

San Francisco Chronicle ***

"Douglas Brinkley brings into relief the biography, cultural influences and political record of the most effective conservationist in history. ... Even though this is an enormous book, interesting and thorough, it seems to me the publisher must have insisted Brinkley trim a couple of hundred of pages, and that he did so by simply snipping off the last 10 very busy years of Roosevelt's life." BOB BLAISDELL

New Yorker ***

"Roosevelt's intense love for nature was, Brinkley makes clear, a conqueror's love--triumphal Darwinism--and included a 'blood lust' in hunting the wildlife he championed. ... Brinkley fully inhabits Roosevelt's mind, a condition that has its disadvantages--the book, with blow-by-blow accounts of college hiking trips and squabbles between naturalists, does not entirely earn its nine hundred pages, making it harder to see the forests (and the story of how T. R. rescued them) for the trees."

Dallas Morning News *

"[Brinkley's] prose varies from impenetrable encyclopedic listings to rambunctious, self-indulgent colloquialism, replete with interjections, vulgar epithets and excessive exclamation points. ... In sum, this new biography is sophomoric and unprofessional, too badly composed to affect Roosevelt scholarship or please TR enthusiasts." CLAY REYNOLDS

CRITICAL SUMMARY

Drawing on unpublished research on Theodore Roosevelt and the rise of conservationism in America--no small task, considering the many biographies on Roosevelt published over the last decade--Brinkley offers a weighty tome that, while shedding new insight into the former president's environmentalism, tends to overwhelm with detail and, according to some critics, underwhelm with substance. Over two decades and more than two dozen books, Brinkley has mastered the art of balancing scholarship and research with readability. In Wilderness Warrior, though, the author's affnity for his subject and the vastness of the literature on Roosevelt get in the way of a message that might have been made clearer with some prudent cutting.

***

Where Men Win Glory

The Odyssey of Pat Tillman

By Jon Krakauer

After the phenomenal success of his true-life epics Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer has become the go-to writer for adrenaline junkies and adventure readers alike. Where Men Win Glory details Pat Tillman's inspiring, tragic "odyssey."

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THE TOPIC: The image of Pat Tillman, a serious young man with chiseled features and intense, determined eyes, became a symbol of the War on Terror after the football-star-turned-soldier was killed by friendly fire while on patrol in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Surprisingly, Tillman had given up a multimillion-dollar contract with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals to join the Army Rangers in June 2002, a decision he made, along with his brother Kevin, after the events of 9/11. Drawing on the details of Tillman's life--family and football, to be sure, but also a keen intellectualism that influenced all his decisions--Krakauer honors the life of an American hero and scrutinizes the cloak of secrecy leading to the cover-up of the truth about Tillman's death.

Doubleday. 383 pages. $27.95. ISBN: 9780385522267

Los Angeles Times ****

"Among the many shadows Jon Krakauer illuminates in his compelling and dispiriting book, Where Men Win Glory, is the commonness of fratricide in high-tech warfare. ... Krakauer--whose forensic studies of the Emersonian Man in books such as Into Thin Air and Into the Wild yield so much insight--has turned in a beautiful bit of reporting, documenting Tillman's life with journals and interviews with those close to him." DAN NEIL

Oregonian ****

"The outline of Tillman's story is well-known, but the details Krakauer tallies, based on reporting trips to Afghanistan and interviews with many of the soldiers who participated in the fratricidal firefight that killed Tillman, give this story the weight it deserves. ... Krakauer has made sure that this shameful episode will not fade into obscurity and that Pat Tillman will be remembered for the man he truly was--and not as the faux symbol of a failed policy." FRAN ARRIETA-WALDEN

Denver Post ****

"Krakauer tells Tillman's story without journalistic remove. ... It isn't easy to see how a man with a successful NFL career in front of him could step away from it to enter the war, but Krakauer builds his foundation and the decision becomes understandable and admirable." ROBIN VIDIMOS

San Francisco Chronicle ****

"Until Page 274, when Krakauer begins presenting the details of Tillman's death, the text covers lots of familiar ground, repeats the cornerstones of Tillman's mostly exemplary character way too often, and--while well written at the sentence and paragraph levels--is structured awkwardly. ... After Page 274, the narrative is far more focused--on the craven coverup of the friendly fire death and the various attempts to expose the coverup." STEVE WEINBERG

USA Today ****

"Seeking events and decisions that led Tillman into battle, Krakauer ... inserts cogently crafted chapters on Afghanistan's modern war-torn history, the rise of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the U.S. response to 9/11 and the war in Iraq. ... Krakauer explores some threads that he never convincingly connects to influencing Tillman--from the large Afghan community in the Bay Area, where Tillman grew up, to the controversial outcome of the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential election." DON OLDENBURG

Boston Globe ***

"Krakauer's book is ... an exhaustive examination of America's political and military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. ... We could do with fewer reminders of the young football star's robust masculinity or his alpha-male, superior-warrior status." JOHN DUFRESNE

Washington Post **

"[Krakauer's] book falls flat--not least because he is more eager to launch an inquisition into the crimes of the Bush administration than to explore this single extraordinary life. ... This is most unfortunate because the parts of the book where Krakauer does tell Tillman's story play to the author's strengths." ANDREW EXUM

NY Times Book Review **

"The biggest problem with Where Men Win Glory is that nearly all the drama and import--Tillman's death and the cover-up--are saved for the last hundred pages. ... Unfortunately, too many of the details of Tillman's life recounted here are mostly banal and inconsequential." DEXTER FILKINS

CRITICAL SUMMARY

Krakauer's cachet in the publishing industry is such that, one imagines, he can pick and choose his projects. With Where Men Win Glory, the author's affinity for his subject and disdain for Tillman's pointless death are clear. Still, after Tillman's mother last year published Boots on the Ground by Dusk, her own account of her son's life and death, it's reasonable to wonder what's left to say. Krakauer generally rises to the challenge, writing well and passionately, even if the book often--and sometimes jarringly--veers into Washington politics and offers irrelevant details about Tillman's life. But through hands-on research and a host of interviews, the author does justice to Tillman's memory and his death, "a function of his stubborn idealism--his insistence on trying to do the right thing."

RELATED ARTICLE

****

Zeitoun

By Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers, the author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, How We Are Hungry (**** Mar/Apr 2005), and What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (**** SELECTION Jan/Feb 2007), is also the editor of McSweeney's and the founder of 826 Valencia, a San Francisco nonprofit writing center for young people.

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THE TOPIC: As Hurricane Katrina approached, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a successful Syrian immigrant and longtime resident of New Orleans, evacuated his wife and children but chose to stay behind. When the city flooded, he paddled a canoe through the abandoned streets, protecting his property and helping trapped people and animals. A week later, he disappeared. Arrested by an armed squad and taken away at gunpoint, he was accused of being a member of Al Qaeda and imprisoned in a metal cage--all without being offcially charged. Eggers explores Zeitoun's Syrian roots and American marriage, his bureaucratic nightmare, and the contradictions of American freedom during the Bush era.

McSweeney's. 342 pages. $24. ISBN: 9781934781630

NY Times Book Review *****

"What Dave Eggers has found in the Katrina mud is the full-fleshed story of a single family, and in telling that story he hits larger targets with more punch than those who have already attacked the thematic and historic giants of this disaster. It's the stuff of great narrative nonfiction." TIMOTHY EGAN

Entertainment Weekly ****

"[Eggers] doesn't try to dazzle with heartbreaking pirouettes of staggering prose; he simply lets the surreal and tragic facts speak for themselves. And what they say about one man and the city he loves and calls home is unshakably poignant--but not without hope, since the proceeds from Eggers' book are earmarked for the Zeitoun Foundation, which will help the victims of Katrina." CHRIS NASHAWATY

New Yorker ****

"Eggers, compiling his account from interviews, sensibly resists rhetorical grandstanding, letting injustices speak for themselves. His skill is most evident in how closely he involves the reader in Zeitoun's thoughts."

San Francisco Chronicle ****

"I was in New Orleans for the disaster, covering it for the New Yorker, and Eggers--who wasn't there--not only captured it perfectly from Abdulrahman's reminisces, he also taught me new ways of looking at it. ... [It] would have been comforting, as a reader, to have Eggers' most explosive accusations backed up by more than one source." DAN BAUM

CRITICAL SUMMARY

The New York Times Book Review called Zeitoun "the stuff of great narrative fiction," and critics agreed that Eggers tells Zeitoun's tragic story without the postmodern trickery and tirades he has exhibited in previous works. Instead, he allows the story to tell itself while imbuing Zeitoun's tragedy with deep sympathy and emotion. Although Eggers didn't witness Hurricane Katrina's devastation firsthand, he captures the experience through Zeitoun's eyes and approaches his subject very intimately. A few critics noted that while this perspective was convincing, it required "faith on the part of the reader that everything in the book happened as it appears here" (San Francisco Chronicle). But this was a minor complaint in an overall unforgettable story.

CITED BY THE CRITICS

CITY OF REFUGE | TOM PIAZZA (2008): Piazza contrasts two stories of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath--one of a white professional heading for divorce, and the other of a black Vietnam vet from the Lower Ninth Ward. Their fates reveal New Orleans's racial and class tensions.

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