For liberals already mad about the health care debate, this book offers compelling reasons to stay angry.
A freelance journalist investigates one of Donald Trump’s officials and the battle for health care in America.
Zaitchik (The Gilded Rage, 2016, etc.) continues to rail against the far right in his latest work. For this slim but detailed volume, he concentrates on one man in particular: the Trump administration’s choice for Health and Human Services secretary, Tom Price. The author admits it is a seemingly innocuous selection on the surface, but asserts: “There is a stink around Tom Price. A deep, unprecedented, flies abuzz stink.” That “stink” starts in the late 1980s with the merger of Price’s suburban orthopedic practice into a major medical company, positioning him for wealth and a seat in Congress. Using voting records and late-night C-SPAN debates, Zaitchik builds the portrait of a doctor who sees health care as little more than an extension of corporate greed. According to the author, Price only believes in “patient choice and the public’s sacred right to get fleeced by the pharmaceutical companies.” The massive amount of public records evidence tracks Price from his days opposing Bill Clinton-era reforms to his all-out assaults against the Affordable Care Act, creating the narrative of a “foot soldier” rising to prominence by following Republicans and lobbyists. From the title to the comic book-style cover, the volume wants the reader to see Price as Zaitchik does: a T-1000 model Republican with cyborglike dedication—a cartoon villain. The author does a tremendous job synthesizing the larger health care debate and Price’s entanglements with private interests while weaving in some laugh-out-loud jabs. But however fun those turns of phrase might be, his target audience will likely not be shocked that a Trump pick makes decisions based on money. At the same time, Zaitchik’s outlook is too black and white to mold a powerful, reasoned argument about health care that could change minds. For a work focused on one man, not digging deeper into Price the person with at least some benefit of the doubt seems like a missed opportunity—after all, the best villains are often more than ooze. They’ve got some humanity too.
For liberals already mad about the health care debate, this book offers compelling reasons to stay angry.Pub Date: June 24, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-947492-02-8
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Strong Arm Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 8, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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