Erudition and wit characterize these travels into the past with an Italian publisher, writer, gourmand, and lover of women. In free-form essays, Buzzi holds forth on subjects as diverse as the flavors of Russian vodka (there are many); the madness of Joan of Aragon, whose bosom smelled fragrantly of ripe peaches; and Chekhov's endearments for his wife, Olga, which included such notables as ``my little cockroach'' and ``my little bitch.'' He captures the sights and smells of pre-revolutionary Russia, the turn of a beautiful foot being held up for the admiration of all at a restaurant in Djakarta, the labyrinth of the underground public toilets in Lipari, an island off the coast of Sicily. Buzzi brings a breadth of knowledge to these moments that is reminiscent of Nabokov, to whom he makes occasional obeisance. And he has fine comic timing, as when he remarks casually that ``consumption was the [Russian] national disease'' or explains, without apology, that for gastronomes ``the word `pepper' must always be preceded by `freshly ground.' But we must admit that there also exists pepper ground some time ago.'' And nobody who reads Buzzi's subtly understated description of the Sun King's tooth extraction will be likely to forget it. (It seems that, having also lost part of his majestic palate, ``during meals bits of food often came out of his nose, which etiquette did not permit his fellow diners to notice.'') Buzzi's writings are as diffuse as they are charming, and shorter than the reader, once engaged, would like. Hopefully, this volume will represent but one of many of his writings to become available in English translation.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-44810-1
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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