ItвЂ™s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that вЂњwe seem to have fallen on hard times.вЂќ Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. вЂњQuality of life means more than just consumptionвЂќ: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues. вЂњYet there is no other way to live.вЂќДЄ moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity. вЂњThe fact of death is unsettling,вЂќ he understates. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. вЂњBut I couldnвЂ™t let go of the question,вЂќ he writes, after realizing that his goals вЂњdidnвЂ™t quite fit in an English department.вЂќ вЂњWhere did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?вЂќ So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which вЂњwould allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.вЂќ The authorвЂ™s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose-as well as the moral purpose underscoring it-suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldnвЂ™t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. Writing isnвЂ™t brain surgery, but itвЂ™s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former.

(8 pages b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour)ДЄ neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer. This portrait of an ugly marriage and a brutal, bullying sociopath is about as insightful as an afternoon talk show. He also hints that he killed Roy DeMeo, ``a Gambino crew boss,'' and that the hit was `` an unnamed organized crime figure.'' He's serving four 30-year sentences in Trenton (N.J.) State Prison. He describes killing several men using a variety of methods (``I can't even remember them all''). As she describes such incidents and the later violence and terror to which he subjected her and their three children during their marriage, Barbara reiterates that Richard was often generous and kind, that there was ``a good Richard and a bad Richard.'' A pool hustler, petty criminal, and porno-film dealer in his early 20s, Richard claims that he ``connected'' with ``wiseguys'' he'd played poker with and began working as a collector, ``a reliable independent contractor.'' He says he'd already killed someone by the time he was 17 (Driver substantiates precious few of Richard's jailhouse boasts). Later, when she was pregnant with their child, he knocked her out for kissing her own father hello. She tried to break up with him, but he changed her mind by cutting her with a knife. Claiming that she ``made a career out of not asking'' her husband questions, Barbara Kuklinski recalls that in 1960, when she was 19 and dating Richard, she learned that he was already married and had two children. Driver, formerly a producer of TV's America's Most Wanted, splices segments from his prison interviews of hit man Richard Kuklinski with the reminiscences of his wife, Barbara. In a tawdry account, Barbara Kuklinski describes 25 years of abuse at the hands of her husband, a convicted New Jersey hit man who claims to have killed dozens of times.

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