Category: What I’m Reading

My Amazon review of Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance (Rated 5): Flaws and foibles, love and loyalty – J. D. Vance teaches us to love and admire the people he loves and admires, with their flaws, determination, and above all, their loyalty to one another. He gives credit to them for saving his life. Humility and gratitude aside, he also deserves to take credit himself for breaking with tradition while at the same time honoring, and maintaining, it.

My Amazon review of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Rated 5): Making the implausible “plausible” – Colson Whitehead makes the implausible, plausible, i.e., that the Underground Railroad was in fact a real, subterranean network of tunnels, tracks, and assorted railroad cars built by those “who built everything else in this country.” Even more accomplished is how Whitehead brings to life the heroic, and often tragic, existence of the slaves who dared to travel and lead others along its byways. Alas, their stories are too plausible and while the sum total is heartbreaking, readers will come away with admiration and the hope that their courage and determination persist today.

My Amazon review of Bellevue by David Oshinsky (Rated 5): A fascinating review of medical and social history – David Oshinsky offers a fascinating view of medical and social history through the lens of an institution that continues to reinvent itself with each era. As he did in his Pulitzer-prize winning masterpiece, Polio, the author introduces readers to the events, and most especially the people, that were the driving force beyond the sometimes tortuous path of progress.

My Amazon review of Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (Rated 5): George Saunders has hit upon a unique format for turning his gifts as a short story writer into a unified novel. I was immediately propelled by the staccato pace, although I admit that in the middle, I wished for less Sesame Street and more Fred Rogers. By the end, however, Saunders built to a sustained prose that penetrated my earthly being. A book that earns its “Bravo” reviews.