An indispensable introduction to the history of Zoroastrianism.
A comprehensive introduction to the ancient philosopher Zarathustra.
It’s likely that Western readers are familiar with the ancient philosophical and religious figure Zoroaster (aka Zarathustra) through Friedrich Nietzsche’s 1893 work Also Sprach Zarathustra but that few have ever encountered Zoroaster’s own writings. Khamneipur, in this remarkably readable, assured nonfiction debut, acknowledges this fact and aims to pull together the history and scholarship of Zoroaster for a broad, nonspecialist audience. The author opens his examination with a detailed overview of Zoroastrianism itself, derived from sacred scriptures, beginning with the eternal struggle between the benevolent creator-god Ahura Mazda and Ahriman, who represents “darkness, lies, and falsehood.” He grounds his readers in a fast-paced but substantial history of ancient Iran, then offers a well-researched biography of Zoroaster himself. The book’s strongest overview, though, is not of the man but of his faith, from its obscure beginnings to its great flowering under the Sassanian dynasty, which ruled the Persian Empire from 224 to 651 (“the last great Iranian empire before the Muslim conquest”). It follows the religion through various revivals and rebellions, such as the revolt of Babak Khorramdin and his followers against the Abassid Caliphate in the early ninth century. Khamneipur details the many threats to the ancient faith, represented by ideological rivals such as Mazdak, Mani, and Mohammed, and rounds out his account with a brief but authoritative look at Zoroastrianism in the present world, set against a broader discussion of humanity’s long history with theism and deism of all kinds. Readers of such popular religious history writers as Karen Armstrong will find a great deal in these pages to interest them. Overall, Khamneipur has written a thoughtful, entirely accessible examination of one of the world’s oldest religions.
An indispensable introduction to the history of Zoroastrianism.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4602-6881-0
Page Count: 504
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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