A judge-turned-pundit proposes to fix America's ``broken'' criminal justice system. In his previous incarnations as prosecutor, defense attorney, and L.A. Municipal and Superior Court judge, TV and radio commentator Katz waded ``waist-deep in the muck'' of a criminal justice system that, he says, encouraged cops to lie, attorneys to deceive, juries to snooze, and judges to abdicate control over their courtrooms. Here Katz assaults the system from all sides, beginning with the ``byzantine'' judge-made rules for excluding relevant but wrongly seized evidence in criminal cases. According to Katz, the exclusionary rule forces good cops to ``testi-ly'' to retroactively conform their behavior to ``demeaning'' procedures. (In his controversial view, ``cops may lie about how they got the evidence . . . [but] they rarely lie about the defendant's guilt.'') Katz also favors scrapping Miranda warnings; instead, all statements given to police should be videotaped, then subjected to judicial hearings. If rolling back such key Warren Court reforms seems unlikely, Katz offers numerous other suggestions embraced by more centrist court watchers: limiting peremptory challenges of potential jurors; firing all jury consultants; dispensing with the requirement that verdicts be unanimous, except in the penalty phase of capital cases; sanctioning ``intemperate'' attorneys with jail sentences, fines, and even disbarment; and limiting ``abuse-excuse'' testimony to probation and sentencing hearings. Katz's incisive, specific, tough-but-fair analysis is marred only by a racially insensitive anecdote and a general tendency toward self-aggrandizement (quoting transcripts of his own court performances and laudatory letters) and self-justification (repeatedly explaining his controversial rulings as judge in the trial of stalked-and-murdered actress Dominique Dunne). The writing is punchy, but sometimes sounds as if it had been dictated rather than written by the author (``How many more were out there just like her? Black, brown, yellow, white? Color didn't matter. Only the children; they matter.''). Despite its flaws, a standout in the growing genre of judge tell-alls. (Author tour)
Pub Date: July 11, 1997
ISBN: 0-446-52042-X
Page Count: 304
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1997
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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