An impressively forthcoming reminiscence full of creative insight.
Gino recollects her 20-year romance with Mario Puzo, the author of The Godfather.
When author Gino (Where Dreams Come True, 2014, etc.) first met Mario Puzo, she was 37-years-old and ending her second marriage. Puzo was 58, and his wife of more than 30 years had just died. Neither was particularly ripe for a new romance, and the differences between them—Gino lightheartedly calls them the “Romantic Patriarch and the Radical Feminist”—made their intimate connection somehow improbable. But a deep connection flourished between them nonetheless, a touchingly authentic bond that lasted for 20 years, until Puzo’s death. Mario had written The Godfather 10 years before they met and had been catapulted into the rarified air of celebrity, a cosmos she initially found daunting. He also mentored her in the “carpentry of writing”—Gino had already taken some courses and a writing workshop and had authorial aspirations of her own. Much of the remembrance recounts captivating conversations between the author and Puzo, which provide an extraordinarily candid look at the man and his work. Gino was introduced to other literary luminaries like Joseph Heller and eventually became a successful author in her own right. At the heart of the memoir is the distance between Gino’s view of love and marriage and Puzo’s, which is built not around romantic passion but the dynamic interplay of power and equality. Puzo had said: “As soon as women find out what a rip off marriage is, they won’t even want it. It’s a thankless job” and an “archaic concept especially for an independent woman.” The author’s remembrance is a loving homage not only to an affectionate partner, but also an insightful, attentive teacher. Puzo’s discussions about his demanding craft, as well as the publishing industry, supply many of the book’s highlights. Gino is a natural storyteller—her style is effortlessly anecdotal, more charmingly informal than literarily polished. Her easy wit and openhandedness make for a delightful read, especially for those interested in the elusive mechanics of writing.
An impressively forthcoming reminiscence full of creative insight.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-936530-33-5
Page Count: 298
Publisher: aaha! Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 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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