Powerful and intimate self-portraits from writers who have much to teach readers.
Essays from 11 authors describe their personal experiences—frustrations, hurts, and triumphs— in confronting the challenges of disabilities.
At age 26, Cipriani (Blind, 2011, etc.) was beaten by childhood friends; the assault left him blind. His search for articles and literature about people living with disabilities led him to a career in journalism. Eventually, he asked other disabled writers to share their stories. This collection is culled from the numerous responses he received, and they reflect a broad spectrum of debilitating conditions: early-onset severe rheumatoid arthritis, deafness, loss of sight, cerebral palsy, high-functioning autism, and injuries inflicted by a vehicle. The chapter-length autobiographies are as different in experience as they are in voice. Whether they became disabled as young or middle-aged adults—or knew they were somehow different from childhood—all of these writers experienced what Cipriani calls their own “rites of passage,” the process of learning to navigate through personal relationships and an unfriendly environment. And for those stricken in adulthood, there is also a period of denial to overcome—a reckoning with the monumental and permanent change in their circumstances. The stories from several writers with autism are especially revelatory. Sam E. Rubin, in “Overdubbing the Cody Effect,” who was diagnosed early, vividly describes his childhood terror facing discipline meted out by a special ed teacher. To this day, Rubin suffers from recurrent PTSD. On the other hand, Kimberly Gerry-Tucker, in “Firsts in Art,” wasn’t diagnosed until adulthood. She firmly believes that she would have benefitted from the extra attention found in special ed. She also poignantly educates readers on the inner workings of the autistic experience. After a difficult but very successful presentation to a large audience, she discovered that the organizer wanted to hug her. “I don’t grant that sort of thing to just anyone,” she explains, “because hugs feel like indents afterward, which can’t be popped back out for hours at times. But we hugged, or I sort of patted her, which is my hug.”
Powerful and intimate self-portraits from writers who have much to teach readers.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73231-270-8
Page Count: 226
Publisher: OLEB Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2018
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
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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