While vague at times, this work offers some digestible thoughts on what constitutes reality.
A writer explores the true nature of human life.
Debut author Hester explains near the beginning of this brief but dense volume that it is “a book about perception and reality.” He argues that humans are currently “adrift in an illusion” and that it is necessary for everyone to return to reason. How exactly did things get like this? A hefty finger is pointed at myths. Take, for instance, the Garden of Eden. This famous story, the author argues, gives people false notions of good and evil. Ideas, like a lurking devil (represented by the serpent in the garden), have “helped suppress reality for thousands of years.” The reality is that humans have the ability to choose what they will do in life. It is not necessary to blame things on manifestations of evil. Nor is it essential to bow to figures who claim an elite access to God. Hester explains how he heard a pastor on the radio asking for donations, recalling “I could find no reason to choose to send money to another human believing he knew what my creator wanted or that he had more access to him than I already had.” In general, the author views religion as “the gateway to the loss of reason,” as it is so often used to create fear in believers while generating wealth and power for a few. What is the antidote to such a state of affairs? Hester’s advice is simple: Humans must take responsibility for their own thoughts and actions. Readers are even given some practical tips, including that people should not try to control others. There is also the reminder that the only descent for humans is “the fall from reason.” The text is presented in a series of short chapters, some more abstract than others. Certain statements seem open to argument. Hester contends that “the human desire for more than reality is designed to allow will always lead to frustrations and mental illnesses.” But what is the threshold for what “reality is designed to allow”? What mental illnesses does this desire cause? In one chapter, readers are told that “groups of two or more humans gathered together cannot be reasonable,” although this claim is itself somewhat unreasonable. Surely there must be one example of a group conducting itself sensibly. Portions in which concrete examples are given make for more potent passages. An analogy about a hypothetical person’s imagined need for a new car (when this individual already has a perfectly fine old car) helps to illustrate how readers can clutter their own lives. The example, though brief, is relatable. In the end, the book’s positive tone also creates some captivating sentiments. Although the author claims this work is not philosophical, Hester ultimately contends that individuals’ lives are theirs to create. Whether or not readers may agree with some of the arguments about illusions, it is still their choice to do what they will with the intriguing material.
While vague at times, this work offers some digestible thoughts on what constitutes reality.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73337-800-0
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2020
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
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