A thoughtful memoir that makes for engaging reading about cultural differences.
A debut memoir about a young man coping with an abrupt move between two very different cultures.
Long was born in the Philippines to a loving mother and a father who didn’t care to be in his life. He spent much of his childhood in the fishing village of Alumnos, raised by his grandmother Rufina Cabreros; his mother and American stepfather moved to California and saved money to bring him over. Long formed a deep bond with Rufina as the two eked out an existence in the poor but deeply communal village. When he finally arrived in Fontana, California, in 1975, at age 15, he struggled with being separated from his beloved grandmother. He also had trouble faking his way through public school while barely understanding English and trying to understand the deep differences between Filipino and American social norms. Long married his girlfriend after she became pregnant; after being expelled from high school for fighting, he enrolled in the U.S. Army to support his new family. The ensuing years were a roller coaster of highs and lows, Long writes, as the young couple dealt with financial issues and her increasingly severe depression and substance abuse. After the marriage finally collapsed, Long resolved to pursue an education and get ahead in the home equity loan business, which forced him to confront even more cultural differences. The author writes eloquently about how Filipino ideals shaped his youthful experience in America. For example, he tells of how his deeply traditional commitment to family drew out the collapse of his own marriage but also reminded him of the deep love between his grandparents. His memories of his childhood are particularly vivid; his descriptions of his small Filipino community, his growing awareness of the many traps of poverty, his grandmother’s die-hard commitment to him, and his volatile uncles will all stick in readers’ memories. The latter third of the book, describing Long’s life after his divorce, isn’t quite as compelling, however.
A thoughtful memoir that makes for engaging reading about cultural differences.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62137-796-2
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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
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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