On Edge Spotli: We

by Kathy Cronkite

In one of the most remarkable anatomical studies ever published, a famed English artist depicts the animal in three positions -- side, front, and back -- starting with the skeleton then offering five studies of muscles, fascias, ligaments, nerves, arteries, veins, glands, and cartilages. Accompanying each of these eighteen etchings is a schematic outline with lettered parts keyed to identifying text.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446809446
• ISBN13: 9780446809443
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Length: 286 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Very Interesting Insight Into the Lives of Famous People's Children

This fascinating concept of uncovering what it's like to be the child of a famous person comes from Walter Cronkite's daughter Kathy. She managed to get a number of big names to go on record (as well as being turned down by many others), and paints a sad picture of being raised by a well-known parent. Her conclusion is that even with great parents like she had, she and the others in the book always feel inadequate because they never quite measure up to their famous dad or mom. Even more interesting is that many of the famous people mentioned in the book have been in the news 30 years after this was written! (She did the interviews from 1978 to 1980.) Walter Cronkite recently died, as did William F. Buckley, Charles Schulz, and Ed McMahon. She talks with the late John Ritter, Lorenzo Lamas and Christie Hefner--all people who had a recent resurgence in popularitiy. There's also Arlo Guthrie, Mary Crosby, Chris Lemmon and the son of Captain Kangaroo. It's quite a collection--the only ones that seem out of place are the children of the founder of est. Cronkite's not a bad writer--she alternates between a chapter with a specific subject that pulls quotes from all involved and the next chapter devoted to one of the children. It's odd that she selects her sister as the first to have an entire chapter devoted to her--because Kathy admits that she didn't like her sister, doesn't have much in common with her, and that the sister doesn't talk much, so it makes for a tense and dull opening. She ends with the daughter of Paul Newman and Newman's son had recently committed suicide (Kathy knew him as well and dedicates the book to him in the final pages). The main problem that keeps this from being a five-star book is that Kathy is not an interviewer--she doesn't ask great questions and fails to often follow-up on some astounding statements made by the celebrity children. She almost goes out of her way to handle these people with "kid gloves," knowing herself that she hates to be asked questions about her upbringing and her parents. So a more objective trained journalist could have done a better job coming up with better questions. But the other side of that is that every conversation feels like a couple of friends sitting in a coffee shop with secrets being revealed. Maybe these kids would have never spoken to a trained professional. Virtually all of them hate discussing fame, scoff at the public thinking they are rich, and have never sat down with their parents to talk about the scars that have come from being raised in a famous household. Most of them have major problems and illegal drugs seem rampant--almost too casual here. Don't these people have standards? Do they really think (as Chris Buckley says) that every 17-year-old does LSD? Walter Cronkite wrote the foreword for the book and in it says he found parts of it "shocking and appalling." You will understand why when you read it--but at the same time you'll feel very sad for these peo