Mini-Review: “Fortunate Son – The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller, Jr.”

The name of General “Chesty” Puller brings a proud smile to the lips of every Marine. He is part of the pantheon of “the few and the proud.” His son, Lewis Puller, Jr., has written a memoir that tells the story of growing up in the shadow of a legendary father, becoming a Marine officer in his own right, losing his legs in an explosion while serving in Vietnam, and struggling to build a life for himself in the aftermath. This thoughtful and thought-provoking book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Lewis Puller, Jr. demonstrates a great deal of transparency in recounting his pilgrimage from the son of a war hero to a wounded warrior looking for his rightful place in the world. The New York Times called this book: “A haunting tribute to the names on the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial . . . An important contribution to the personal literature of war.”

The fact that much of Puller’s personal journey took place during the same time the nation was struggling with building the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial adds a special poignancy to this memoir. Several of my friends who have served recently in Iraq and Afghanistan commended this book to me as one that had helped them in their own process of reconciling their experiences in war with their return to the United States.

This is a story of great loss and of commensurate courage and determination. I think you will find it inspiring and well worth reading.

Al

Dr. Mardy Grothe Does it Again - Review of "I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like"

In the past, I have taken great delight in sharing with the readers of The White Rhino Report my reviews of Dr. Mardy Grothe's intriguing and illuminating collections of quotations, "Oxymoronica" and "Viva La Repartee":

Previous Reviews

So, I was thrilled to learn that Harper Collins has just published a new collection, brilliantly entitled "I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like." The shameless punster in me did a fist pump when I first saw the title! The subtitle calls this latest collection of quotations "a comprehensive compilation of history's greatest analogies, metaphors and similes."

Anyone who loves language and appreciates its proper and creative usage will find nuggets of gold in the 300+ pages of this book. Here is a small sampling of the delights you will find as you let your fingers and mind wander through these chapters.

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"If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world. and that his heart is no island cut off from other islands, but a continent that joins to them."

Francis Bacon (p. 27)

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"What we become depends on what we read
after all of the professors have finished with us.
The greatest university of all is a collection of books."

Thomas Carlyle (p. 29)

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"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the face."

Victor Hugo (p. 111)

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"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it."

James M. Barrie (p. 120)

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"To love another person is to see the face of God."

Victor Hugo (p. 169)

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"I inhabit a weak, frail decayed tenement; battered by the winds and broken upon by the storms, and from all I can learn, the landlord does not intend to repair."

John Quincy Adams, as he lay dying (p. 219)

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"Every man who takes office in Washington either grows or swells, and when I give a man an office, I watch him carefully to see whether he is swelling or growing."
Woodrow Wilson (p. 273)

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"Ideas are to literature what light is to painting"
Paul Bourget (p. 292)
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"An idea, like a ghost . . . must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself."
Charles Dickens (p. 284)
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"A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity, and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon, and by moonlight."

Robertson Davies (p. 301)

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In keeping with the spirit of Dr. Grothe's offering, let me say that this latest volume is an all-you-can-eat buffet of morsels to satisfy every literary palate. Dig in!

Enjoy.

Al