A sober, informative disquisition on the sundry forms that humanity can assume and endure. (85 b&w photos)
In a companion volume to his A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities (1997), physician Bondeson explores “the history of teratology, the science of monstrous births.”
Comprised of a dozen essays related by theme and structure, Bondeson’s study ranges far in search of the bizarre and even miraculous varieties of human appearance. He begins with a hirsute woman in 17th-century Germany who performed on the harpsichord and ends with nauseating accounts of gluttons, one of whom consumed “live sparrows, crawfish, mice, adders, and eels.” The author follows a similar pattern in each tale: he first presents the historical record (often quoting from extremely rare pamphlets and other documents residing in libraries and museum archives—or in his own abundant collections), identifies similar cases in the public record, then either provides the current medical explanation of the phenomenon or declares the story fraudulent (e.g., the accounts of egg-laying women in the 17th century). Sometimes he reveals how his subjects have been portrayed in the arts. Thus, for example, we learn that Daniel Lambert (1770–1809), the most corpulent man of his age (he weighed nearly 800 pounds), was so well known that writers like Thackeray, Dickens, and Melville alluded to him. Bondeson presents some astonishing facts. There can, indeed, be a “stone” child—the “calcified remains of an extrauterine pregnancy.” And some people do have horns (“concentric layers of keratinized epithelial cells”), caused by various skin diseases. And the conjoined Tocci brothers from Italy had two heads, two necks, four perfect arms—but only one lower body and one pair of legs; they toured Europe in the late 19th century and earned enough to retire. Nicholas Ferry, the famed dwarf, once emerged from a pastry shell during a fancy dinner to alarm the guests. Bondeson strives mightily—and successfully—to treat his subjects seriously and compassionately, thereby assuring a dignity that most never enjoyed in their lifetimes.
A sober, informative disquisition on the sundry forms that humanity can assume and endure. (85 b&w photos)Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8014-3767-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Cornell Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.
Lessons about life from those preparing to die.
A longtime hospice chaplain, Egan (Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago, 2004) shares what she has learned through the stories of those nearing death. She notices that for every life, there are shared stories of heartbreak, pain, guilt, fear, and regret. “Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass and pull meaning out from under us,” she writes. “Everyone who does not die young will go through some sort of spiritual crisis.” The author is also straightforward in noting that through her experiences with the brokenness of others, and in trying to assist in that brokenness, she has found healing for herself. Several years ago, during a C-section, Egan suffered a bad reaction to the anesthesia, leading to months of psychotic disorders and years of recovery. The experience left her with tremendous emotional pain and latent feelings of shame, regret, and anger. However, with each patient she helped, the author found herself better understanding her own past. Despite her role as a chaplain, Egan notes that she rarely discussed God or religious subjects with her patients. Mainly, when people could talk at all, they discussed their families, “because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives.” It is through families, Egan began to realize, that “we find meaning, and this is where our purpose becomes clear.” The author’s anecdotes are often thought-provoking combinations of sublime humor and tragic pathos. She is not afraid to point out times where she made mistakes, even downright failures, in the course of her work. However, the nature of her work means “living in the gray,” where right and wrong answers are often hard to identify.
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59463-481-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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