Poirot and Me by David Suchet

David Suchet, CBE was born 2 May 1946 and is a renowned English actor who played the role of detective Hercule Poirot

As a character actor, David Suchet enjoyed his freedom to play a variety of roles in any number of stage and cinematic productions. Unlike heart throbs of either gender, fear of aging need not haunt the career of a character actor, as casting is not based upon youth and glamor. Ironically, due to his brilliance in his best-known role as Agatha Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot, David Suchet was, well beyond forty, often greeted with rapture by enthralled female devotees. 

What brought about this celebrity status?
Having acted in Shakespearean companies and performed in productions written by other renowned playwrights, when first offered the part of Hercule Poirot, he felt mildly offended. Asked how much of Ms. Christie’s work he had read, Suchet replied, “Not one word.”

Still, this fact did not deter those directors who believed him suitable for the part.  In fact, this may have proved beneficial, in that it meant taking on the role with no preconceptions. Hence, at age 42, Suchet’s dedication to acting was such as to spur him to research the 62-year-old Poirot with the thoroughness needed to portray Beethoven, Stalin or Einstein.  This entailed sifting through Agatha Christie’s work for every reference to Poirot, then compiling notes on both his qualities and flaws.

If Poirot’s perfectionism and obsessive tidiness were annoying, Suchet was prepared to present them as such. On occasion, he also let the audience glimpse the loneliness, especially during the holiday season, of those who, like Poirot, live their lives almost entirely via intellect, with a minimum of emotion.  In addition, Suchet’s physical and verbal characteristics would need to undergo major changes.  At forty-two, his body required significant padding in order to represent Christie’s detective who, in addition to being twenty years older, was plump, with well-tended moustache and distinctive French-Belgian accent. 

As tends to happen to authors who have created a character which takes on an identity of its own in the public consciousness, some believe Agatha Christie’s publishers brought pressure to bear on her to continue to write novels in which Poirot’s investigative work proved pivotal.  Indeed, Ms. Christie once wrote in a newspaper, “There have been moments when I have felt, why, why, why did I invent this detestable, bombastic, tiresome little creature, eternally straightening things, eternally boasting, eternally twisting his mustache and tilting his egg-shaped head?  In moments of irritation, I point out that, by a few strokes of the pen, I could destroy him utterly.”

And yet, she did not. During the next 30 years, she continued to write mystery novels centered on his abilities as the ultimate sleuth. Such was her prestige that no outside influence could have impelled her to do so.  Indeed, she published her short story, “Curtain” describing Poirot’s demise, not long before her own death.  From Suchet’s perspective, having enacted his final episode as Poirot, he and his cast shed tears of genuine mourning.  Hercule Poirot, in his way, had become a part of each of them.

Goodbye, I Love You by Carol Lynn Pearson

Carol Lynn Wright Pearson was born September 27th 1939 and is a renowned American author and poet.

Carol Lynn Pearson’s memoir “Goodbye, I Love You” was written during the apex of the AIDS crisis.  AIDS is no longer the threat it once was, and gay marriage is becoming legalized in an increasing number of countries.  Still, the underlying pain of marrying someone, having children with him or her, and then learning this spouse has a hidden life, will forever be a source of profound anguish.

Upon meeting Gerald Neils Pearson at a party given by fellow Mormons, the author felt drawn to both his physical appeal and unique sensitivity.  Both having been brought up in the Mormon faith, they shared the same values: complete intimacy must wait until marriage, and even physical affection must be held in abeyance.  Hence, as they began to date and then form a relationship, Gerald Pearson’s lack of amorous zeal seemed a part of their mutual framework.  Then came the moment when Gerald admitted he had been intimately involved “with a guy-guys”.

Despite her dismay, Carol Lynn believed this would end after he found fulfilment in their marriage.  And so it seemed to, for some while, with only occasional hints of his gay leanings returning. Three children were borne by the couple before Carol Lynn became apprised of Gerald’s clandestine visits to gay bars.

The remainder of this memoir describes Carol Lynn’s reaction to this discovery, and Gerald’s eventual death from AIDS.  As she waited, with tenderness, at his side, she read him poems he requested, many of which she had written herself before and during their marriage.

It would be difficult for a book review to convey the emotion and growing understanding between Gerald, Carol Lynn and their children. In a sense, the closeness which evolved through the openness gave a deeper dimension to both the marital and familial bond than could have come into being during Gerald’s years of concealment.

I read this book in one afternoon as it was such a vital, moving reading experience. Indeed, its brevity is one of its strengths in that every word carries meaning.

There Was a Little Girl by Brooke Shields

Brooke Shields

Full Title: There Was a Little Girl:  The Real Story of My Mother and Me by Brooke Shields

Brooke Shields’ earlier memoir, "Down Came the Rain", chronicled with candor the postpartum depression she suffered after the birth of her first child.   This account undoubtedly gave encouragement to mothers in her position.  A combination of antidepressants, psychotherapy, and overall tenderness and understanding from those closest to her, freed Ms. Shields to delight in the joys of new motherhood.  Still, for those aware of her early, controversial film career, and her intense, turbulent relationship with her mother, there seemed to be an emotional element hinted at but not completely disclosed.  

Teri Shields, (1933-2012) a divorced single mom with only one child, devoted all her consuming love and ambition into her daughter, Brooke Shields.  At first, Brooke revelled in this absorption.  No mother of any friend or playmate she knew made her child an absolute center, around whom all other concerns were peripheral.  Life proved harmonious, until Brooke began to see increasing indications of her mother’s continuous drinking reaching an alarming dimension. This dependence on drink, never conquered, resulted in the first major rift between mother and daughter. 

Still, after her mother’s seemingly successful stay in a substance abuse rehabilitation center, Brooke admits she missed her role as martyred daughter to the point where she found herself almost wishing her mom would relapse.  She even tried to be defiant enough to provoke her to do so. Soon Brooke overcame this wish, allowing their loving relationship to resume. Eventually, Teri returned to her addiction, slowly at first, but then with growing nonchalance, until she was drinking as much as she always had, if not more.  

At the same time, Brooke acknowledges few mothers would have given her the bolstering she needed during those times she craved it the most.  In 1978, Teri Shields promoted the then pubescent Brooke towards stardom in a film in which her role would be that of a child prostitute.  Upon the release of this film, “Pretty Baby”, the media flourished.  Teri became a mother so frantic to gain her daughter a major film role as to allow her to demean and degrade herself.  Still, according to Brooke, the film held no trace of pornography.  In fact, she viewed it as an artistic production.  When the media castigated young Brooke for failing to voice shame and remorse, her mother asked her, in private, if she felt proud of the work she had done.   When Brooke said she did feel fulfilled, her mother advised her to ignore those who criticized her.

When, as a student at Princeton University, Brooke was initially shunned as a celebrity snob, she needed Teri to travel some distance in order to have dinner with her every Wednesday.  At one point, Brooke’s isolation was such as to force her to phone her mother to say she felt she had to leave Princeton.  Her mother, in what Brooke understood as her penultimate sacrifice, pleaded with her not to give up, advising her, if she did so, she would regret it for the rest of her life. Hence, Brooke continued, eventually forming friendships and relationships irrelevant to her status and fame.   

Still, as she grew into adulthood, she claimed greater freedom.  Her mother feeling alone and discarded became suffocating.  The remainder of Brooke’s memoir focuses largely on the ways in which Brooke and Teri Shields negotiated what felt to them both like a separation almost too wrenching to be endured, while both knew it to be inevitable.  When her mother died, Brooke, by then a mother of two growing daughters, concedes she felt, and at times continues to feel, the need for her “Mommy”.  How many of us, at whatever age, can say, in all truth, we do not sometimes yearn to return to that same insulation against the tedium and miseries of day-to-day life. 

Presidential Policies on Terrorism by Donna Starr-Deelen

President Ronald Reagan

President Barack Obama

Full Title: Presidential Policies on Terrorism: From Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama by Donna Starr-Deelen 

In her book, international law scholar Donna Starr-Deelen provides a well-researched, highly informative history of terrorism in the U.S., and its probable future.  One of her primary questions explores the accuracy of the contention by George W Bush that everything changed after 9-11.  While not minimizing the tragic gravity of this attack, she queries whether it, in itself, undermined the solid political structure built after WWII by the UK and U.S.  

Perhaps this observation by George W. Bush proved a bit too simplistic.  Might those bombings have served as a pretext to justify military force which had been held, for some while, in abeyance?  A further point addressed by Ms. Starr-Deelen involves the fact that the 1787 framers of the U.S. Constitution were writing within a framework far different from that in which we live today.

Indeed, the current capacity to kill soldiers and civilians alike by bombs dropped by “drones” in the form of planes operated by remote control would have seemed as alien to them as the idea of life on other spheres of the universe.  In the same sense, these framers could hardly have guessed the extent of the latitude allowed to a president to deploy his executive privilege in times of emergency.

Donna Star-Deelen, already well-qualified in the study of international policies and relations, was living in Washington D.C. during the 9-11 onslaught.  Hence, while she retains objectivity, she reflects the essence of those thoughts and feelings felt and experienced during its aftermath.  As she points out, those in authority dictate the course of the lives and potential deaths of those forced to accept their edicts, merely by being citizens or subjects in an area where these leaders are free to exert control.

Having chronicled terrorism and counter-terrorism in detail, her final chapter evaluates the efforts and consequences of decisions made during the presidency of Barack Obama.  When he was inaugurated on January 20th 2009, many Americans, especially those who felt marginalized by the existing political system, enjoyed a renewed sense of hope, perhaps akin to that surge of courage which flowed from the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy.  Just as Kennedy was the first Catholic to be elected to this office, Barack Obama was the first African-American.

The changes he promised during his inaugural address were absorbed with joy, going some way towards erasing the cynicism bred by the policies of George H. W. Bush, and then his son, George W. Bush. Even Bill Clinton, while striving for justice on multiple levels, had disillusioned a large number of his constituents by his drawing out of the debate regarding his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, via a series of specious legal contentions.  (Indeed, the word “Clintonesque” has entered the English language as representing an “everything but” liaison.

Still, there are issues which seem bound to remain unresolved after Obama’s second and last term of office in 2016.  Practices conducted beyond American shores are being committed on grounds of “enhanced interrogation”.  The extent of this enhancement will, in all probability, never be fully revealed.  Still, it is well-known that American agents, especially those deployed by the CIA, have authorized or participated in activities which cross the ambiguous zone from interrogation to torture.  One example is “water boarding”  evoking images of surfing and kayaking, while in truth it entails the holding under water of someone resisting questions likely to subject them to further prosecution or death, to the point where the person questioned feels a legitimate fear of drowning.

Ultimately, Obama has found his administration far more shackled by previous errors and controversies than he anticipated.  This has prevented him, to some degree, from adhering to his original hopes and pledges.  Thus, a feeling of over-all let-down and anxiety pervades America as the 2016 election approaches.

To summarize, this book is a superb research tool for anyone studying this period, as well as the general reader wishing for a deeper understanding of the struggles which have haunted the political system since the beginnings of terrorism.  

Finding Me by Michelle Knight

Full Title: Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed: A Memoir of the Cleveland Kidnappings by Michelle Knight and Michelle Burford

Michelle Knight, in this memoir, allows us, as readers, to experience through her words, imprisonment in the home of a psychopath for eleven years. Michelle was vulnerable in that her pubescent years had been marred by abuse by a family member, unidentified by her.  Neither of her parents made the slightest attempt to shield her from this continuous torment.  During her high school years, she met a young man who seemed trustworthy and claimed to love her.  Reluctant to trust him at first, in time she began to believe in his genuine tenderness to the point of risking pregnancy.  

Horrifically, by the time she became aware of her condition, she had learned her seaming boyfriend was involved in an established relationship, and was glad to dismiss his relationship with Michelle as just a bit of fooling around.  Determined to bear her child, but too proud to inform its father or ask him for financial support, she had minimal choices. Eventually, financial need forced her to allow her two-year-old Joey to be adopted.

Later, her mishap made her a pariah.  This made her grateful to find a friend in Emily Castro.  Hence, when Emily’s father Ariel, divorced but appearing friendly and kind, offered her a ride home from an event, Michelle felt safe in accepting it.  Tragically, having found a means of maneuvering her into his house, he confined her there for 11 years; her friend had absolutely no idea this had happened.

In time, this pathological sadist kidnapped two other young women, via similar ruses.  Although saddened by this, Michelle did find some joy and stimulation in their company.  One of them, Gina, saved Michelle’s life when Ariel Castro’s brutalities had all but erased it.

Readers of this book are almost bound to find parts of it wrenching. Still, in the end, all three young women were rescued and freed.
There is joy and triumph in their liberation, after enduring tortures to which many would have succumbed via apathy or suicide.

At the end of her memoir, Michelle Knight’s ultimate regret is loss of contact with her son, Joey.  Having no wish to disrupt his relationship with his adoptive parents, she can only hope he may contact her if and when he feels prepared to do so.  I finished reading this memoir with the hope that he will, having reached an age where he can decide for himself, find Michelle Knight, his birth mother.  

Jubana by Gigi Anders

One of the joys of this memoir is Ms. Anders’ writing as if chatting with a friend over an afternoon coffee or evening glass of wine.  In essence she says, as friends do, “Hi, it’s me; I have quirks, flaws and qualities, just as you do, so let’s just get talking.”

And so we do.  Gigi talks with each reader as an individual. As such, we respond to her triumphs and hurts as we would to those of someone we have known and confided in for some while.  If her humor sometimes feels a bit forced, it hints at the veiling of the pain of frustrated affection. 

The term Jubana refers to a Jewish woman rooted in Cuban culture. Gigi’s heritage led to a multi-layered sense of herself as Jewish, Cuban and American.  As a child, her family felt forced to leave Cuba, due to Castro’s dictatorial regime; they regarded him as “the spawn of Hitler”.
As voluntary exiles, Gigi and her family were allowed to bring with them to America only what could be contained in two suitcases.  (If they circumvented this rule just a bit by hiding money in the clothing they wore, one can hardly condemn them).

Forced to start over in the U.S., Gigi’s mother was determined to adhere, as much as feasible, to their interweaving of Jewish and Cuban framework, adding whatever amenities America offered. This entailed a girl’s making herself alluring enough to urge a wealthy man into marriage.  Yes, love was pleasant enough in its way, but nowhere near as vital as prettiness and the freedom of a wellspring of affluence.  Her mother’s affection, while genuine, seemed to depend on her mood, leaving Gigi unsure, in emotional need, as to whether she would be understood or degraded.  

Uncertainty added a further dimension to her quest for identity. Though sometimes missing the comforts of her pre-Castro years, the 2000 Elian Gonzalez case brought Gigi’s current sense of the divergence between the two countries to the fore. Born in 1993, six years later, his mother and her partner left Cuba.  During their crossing, their boat overturned, resulting in the drowning of nearly everyone aboard.  Elian survived. 

Found by fishermen near the Atlantic Ocean, the appropriate agencies located maternal relatives who were glad to embrace the boy into their home.  At some point, this embrace grew so tight as to defy the American legal system and threaten an international conflict. 
In 2000, Elian was returned to his father in Cuba. Gigi, having recently visited Havana, felt irate at the thought of returning a child to a country where conditions remained as horrific as those which had impelled her parents to flee its cruelties.  Elian’s mother, divorced from his father, was willing to hazard her life, as well as those of her partner and son, to escape these atrocities. 

Having reached the end of this memoir, I felt it touched the ache of exile of whatever kind which pervades the lives of so many of us in various forms.  I would have liked to have said, “Right, Gigi, let’s meet up for that coffee.”  Maybe someday we can. 

An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski

Full Title: An Invisible Thread: the true story of an 11-year-old panhandler, a busy sales executive, and an unlikely meeting with destiny by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski.

Those living and working In Manhattan, the core of New York, find people begging for money, “panhandlers”, as incessant and irksome as nuisance calls, traffic tie-ups, and electrical outages. Thus, when 36-year-old corporate sales representative Laura Schroff was approached by a pre-teen boy asking her for “spare change”, she walked passed him as she would any similar irritant. Still, after strolling a few blocks away, some inner strand of connection impelled her to turn back to that corner where the boy had made his request.  She waited a moment; the boy had walked on.  Then, he returned to their meeting-point.  

Ms. Schroff believes, as do many of us, myself included, pivotal meetings occur when the lives of both participants are meant to interweave in some definitive way. This link proved true in the interaction between Laura Schroff and the boy she would later come to know as Maurice Mazyck.  While eager to help the boy, Laura Schroff needed to ensure whatever contribution she made would not be spent on illegal substances.  Thus, she offered to treat him to lunch at the place of his choice- McDonald’s.  

While far from the optimal source of nutrition, the boy’s gorging of its instantaneous, fast, deep-fried food, followed by a desperate request for seconds, confirmed what Laura had already surmised. This boy was a malnourished child, not a conniving hustler. Through time, and various vicissitudes, the friendship between Laura and Maurice evolved.  Despite their apparent differences, Laura soon came to realize the similarities in their backgrounds.

Maurice’s father had left the family when Maurice, a young child, still viewed him as the icon of power and strength he appeared to be.  Laura’s dad, though continuing to provide some financial support, was emotionally absent, due to his drunken brutalities.  An especially horrific rage resulted in his smashing, deliberately, one after another, each of her brother’s hard-won sports trophies.  The aspiring athlete watched, transfixed, while the symbols of his triumphs were erased by this savagery, his hopes for the future wrecked, never to be reborn or resurrected.  

As Laura and Maurice’s friendship progressed, she allowed him to stay by himself in her apartment on some afternoons, while she was at work.  This meant , for the first time, Maurice could watch TV, read a book, take a nap, have a sandwich, or do whatever he chose, with no adult to instill guilt.  Yet, Laura set boundaries early on. She pledged to Maurice she would tell him just once, the slightest violation of trust would put an immediate end to their friendship.  
This trust, never offered before by anyone, seems to have change Maurice’s priorities from the basic wish to acquire whatever he could by whatever means, to a desire to respect the trust which Laura bestowed upon him.
  
The tie between Laura and Maurice went through difficult times. Marriages on both sides changed the nature of their connection. Still, with bouts of silence created by Maurice’s tendency to drop out of touch, their bond did not end.  His silence was motivated by the fear his mistakes might impel Laura to abandon and spurn him. Still, their friendship continues.  As decades pass, age differences between generations tend to diminish, often to the point of insignificance.  Hence, Laura and Maurice share an ongoing bond with each other’s families.  Their friendship has given both of them strength to overcome the ongoing challenges of every life, with the acceptance of risk and renewal.  Without this openness, given appropriate safeguards, life can lose its adventure in living. 

My Father’s Places by Aeronwy Thomas

Aeronwy Thomas

My Father's Places: A Portrait of Childhood by Dylan Thomas' Daughter by Aeronwy Thomas  

Like many children of famous parents, Aeronwy Thomas’ growing years were exposed to a sometimes disconcerting degree of public view.  Though living only until age thirty-nine, the immortal work of Dylan Thomas has become a milestone of literature.  Hence, it is saddening to learn that, during his daughter’s childhood, much of her father’s income was evoked by “begging letters” to those affluent and eager to invest in superb writers.

  
While appreciative of this crucial support, it sometimes demanded a level of groveling which could generate rage.  Fortunately, although recognized as the offspring of a celebrity, the Thomas’ children were well-grounded in reality by a number of relatives living nearby, neighborhood friends, and through becoming students at their local school. Yet, familial ties were often plagued by volcanic turbulence.

In order to maintain awareness of Dylan’s work, trips abroad were essential. Though sometimes traveling as a family, Dylan took several promotional tours alone, most often to America. Such solo trips, difficult for any couple, proved doubly hard given Dylan’s tendency to philander.  Opportunities are always abundant for the famous in any sphere. In addition, society hostesses, if treated well, were glad to provide financial largess.  During his last days, Dylan claimed these liaisons were substitutions for closeness to his cherished wife, Caitlin. Still, this brought little comfort to Caitlin, wounded by his infidelities, and humiliated by their consequent scandals.

Both Dylan and Caitlin were firebrands.  Eruptions, often including fisticuffs, seem to have been a part of that passion which kept their love lively.  Perhaps their absorption with one another, joined with the needs of Dylan’s work, to some extent, excluded their children.  Often Aeronwy refers to her father and mother as “Dylan” and “Caitlin”. 

Still, tenderness and affection pervade this memoir.  In the most authentic sense, Dylan and Caitlin were symbiotic.  True, she sometimes had to lock him inside the shed for his designated hours of writing.  Still, had she not done so, some of his most magnificent works might not have come to fruition?  Thus, these two warring spirits fed and nurtured each other. 

The Forbidden Zone by Mary Borden

Mary Borden lower center 

The Forbidden Zone: A Nurse's Impressions of the First World War by Mary Borden 

This memoir of a nurse during WWI is often almost too painful to read.  Still, in her preface, she says she has softened the edges of some realities in that, even after decades, they would cause her too much anguish to write or to inflict upon readers.  The title refers to an area in France deemed “the forbidden Zone”  because of its closeness to the line of fire.  Yet, Ms. Borden persevered from 1914 until 1918, travelling to whatever section she was assigned, always within this zone.

First published in 1929, it was rediscovered and re-published in 2008.  Perhaps interest has been reawakened due to current wars with their rising death tolls, and veterans returning with physical and emotional scars.  Part of the sadness and horror contained in this book results from the awareness that, at this very moment, young men and women are being wheeled into military hospital wards, having lost arms, legs or at times, even faces.

Despite a century’s accumulation of knowledge regarding drugs and procedures, doctors and nurses are all too often powerless to do more than palliate suffering.  Indeed, many of Ms. Borden’s experiences may be shared by her modern counterparts. Frequently, war nurses were the last human beings a soldier was likely to see before dying.  Thus, one nurse was asked to come to a bedside, only to be told by a gravely injured young man that he never before had killed a woman.  This sentence, unexplained, touched her as a plea for absolution for one or more acts which shamed this young man to the depths of his being.
  
A slightly longer encounter occurred with a man who was frantic and desperate to die.  The greatest irony of such wars is the permission, indeed encouragement to kill anyone, despite gender or age, whose life proves in any way inconvenient.  This endorsement, however, ends at one’s self; a failed suicide attempt resulted in being shot after having been court martialed.

Here a middle aged man, doubtless joining the army after younger draftees had been killed, having shot himself in the mouth, survived and was brought to the hospital.  There, though well aware of his fate, the doctors struggled to save his life, lest his death caused a flurry of similar efforts.  Finally, Ms. Borden and her fellow nurses agreed to “forget” to force him to wear those bandages he continued to rip away from his wounds.  A moment came when, though no word dared be spoken by either side, his eyes voiced his gratitude.  Two days later he died.

Parts of this book are given an added immediacy by being written as poems, addressing the reader as if he or she were a friend.  One of the most evocative states:  “Listen; you can hear how well it works: there is the sound of cannon and of the ambulances bringing the wounded, and the sounds of the tramp of strong men going along to fill the empty places. Do you hear?  DO you understand? It is all as it should be.

Final Truth by Donald Gaskins and Wilton Earle

Full Title
Final truth: The Autobiography of a Serial Killer by Donald Gaskins and Wilton Earle.

Having read thousands of books throughout my life, none has left me feeling as troubled and disturbed as this uncensored account by a journalist of the memoir of serial killer Donald Gaskins known as “Pee Wee Gaskins”.
   
Wilton Earle gained Gaskins trust by listening to his account of his crimes with objectivity and a complete lack of judgment.  This approach allowed Gaskins own voice to be heard, not only by Earle, but by later readers.  Earle’s account is based on tapes recorded by Gaskins as an inmate on death row, during a period of fifteen months, sometimes with Earle present, and at other times by himself in his cell.
    
Given the imminence of his death due to multiple convictions, Gaskins felt no need to censor his account of his past, including his joy in inflicting pain and slow, horrific deaths upon his countless victims. His sole, nonchalant defense of his acts lay in his statement that he had been born “with a special kind of mind which gives myself permission to kill”. 

Although his mother seems never to have beaten or been verbally cruel to him, after her husband left her, she seems to have ignored his needs in order to maintain relationships with a series of men who he was told to regard as “step-daddies”. In fact, so brief was the stay of many of them that Gaskins simply addressed them as “Sir”, rather than bothering to learn their names.  The majority of these men were bullies.  After Gaskins death post-mortem examinations indicate that, at some point, he was struck on the head, or struck down, by one or more of his mother’s partners, to the point of developing brain injuries.  

When Gaskins left home his primary male influences were those eager to teach him the best strategies for breaking and entering homes, and the most valuable items to steal.  Juvenile offenses led to reformatories where Gaskins learned that respect was based on control, rooted in violence.  Lessons learned in this setting prepared him for the criminal career which would end in his death.  By degrees, he became more deeply involved in the prison environment.
  
Between prison sentences, strategizing his next crime, he resorted to the advice given him by his mentors in the federal prison system, and then acted upon this knowledge. The most painful aspect of this book lies in Gaskins’ lack of remorse, even when killing his niece, for sheer gratification.  

At the end of his account, I felt frustration at my own and societies lack of solutions to the waste of so many lives, including that of the twisted Donald Gaskins.  The correction system, as it stands, is a quagmire of quicksand.  The deeper any offender sinks, the greater his knowledge becomes, until he is almost certain to drown in its depths of hopelessness.  If only a way could be found to halt this process before it becomes overwhelming.  

Heartbreaker: A Memoir of Judy Garland by John Meyer

Judy Garland

The Judy Garland who emerges from these pages is hard to like. True, her addictions had, by her early forties, reached a point where carefully monitored weaning would have been necessary in order for her to begin to recover.  Still, towards the end of her needlessly brief life, she seems to have made no effort to seek clinical intervention.  When song-writer John Meyer met Judy Garland, he had written one well-received song and had aspirations to write others.  At the same time, despite their age difference, he found Ms. Garland captivating and delightful-indeed, he asked her to marry him, and she agreed, but they never tied the knot.

Her voice had kept its wellspring of beauty.  What was needed, Meyer felt he could provide:  enough motivation to renew both her vocal strength and the career she had begun to spoil by her reputation as an unreliable addict. The two felt sure they could create a union interwoven of love and abilities.  All the right components were there, but by her early forties, Judy Garland had become almost wholly egocentric and manipulative.  

Judy’s pleasure in stealing from fans I found truly despicable.   Beyond arriving insultingly late for well-paid-for performances, she took any item she fancied from unsuspecting fans, too bedazzled to suspect or accuse.  By way of one example, once in a restaurant, Judy and John began chatting with a couple they had never met before.  Towards the end of the evening, having asked to borrow the woman’s spectacles to check the time, Judy asked, “Can I have these?” claiming they worked better than did her own.  The woman looked distressed, but was shocked and intimidated into consenting.

Still, Judy Garland was often endearing.  Her need for Meyer’s love could be poignant in its intensity.  Fear of forfeiting his affection brought out the almost childlike warmth which had not been jaded. Meyer explores various aspects of their relationship in a tender and compassionate way.  As he concludes, it is heartbreaking that such a magnificent talent was squandered by ingrained dependence on pills and alcohol, joined with the expectations of stardom.  In time, she allowed this power to exploit friends, lovers and audiences with sparse shame or remorse.
  
Ultimately, the book recounts a woman who, over-all, had lost both her path and perspective. In terms of social commentary, Meyer’s book reflects the damage done to those adored from such a young age as to view themselves above the ethics and fairness of human dealings.  

The Happy Hoofer by Celia Imrie

As often happens, life took Celia Imrie on a different path than she intended. 
Being told twice she was “too large” to be a ballet dancer, she instead began working as a tea-girl and gopher for theatres.  In time, she was offered minor roles, leading to ones of greater significance.  Hence, during a long career, she saw the human side of many theatrical greats, such as John Gielgud, Judi Dench and Glenda Jackson.

This book will delight those who enjoy reading anecdotes about such celebrities.  

One of these addresses the fairness and generosity of Ms. Jackson. During the run of a stage play or the making of a film, it was protocol for major stars to eat in the most elegant restaurants, while minor actors and the crew were expected to subsist on the basics. Glenda Jackson would have none of that; cast and crew dined as a group, with complete equality. 

Celia Imrie also discusses her various illnesses and accidents, including her attack by a shark on what she thought to be a wonderfully deserted beach.  In addition, she discusses her choice to have a child without a relationship or marriage, who she succeeded in bringing up on her own.  
This memoir has its bright, happy moments along with some deeply poignant ones.