A cleareyed schema that calls for humanity to remember how to access its own sacred nature without resorting to the crutch...
A detailed call for a spirituality that fundamentally changes its relationship with the idea of a God.
In her latest, Fairless (The Dance of the Caterpillars, 2014, etc.) takes a hard look at the typical Western concept of a God, a troubling figure to which she attributes a wide array of postmodern evils. She refers to this concept of God as the Anthropocentric God, the Androcentric God, the Dominator God, the God of Privilege, etc. She considers this God a harmful figure, the figurehead of colonizing white men of privilege that has led to the dispossession of native populations and the violent crushing of dissent. According to Fairless, “There is no doubt about the need for deconstruction of white privilege, entitlement, and dominance.” The generationslong process by which those forces collected around the traditional view of the deity is a source of probing inquiry for this author. “How has it happened that we have gathered up the sacredness of the universe,” she asks, “called some of it sacred, more of it profane, and laid all of it at the metaphorical feet of this God, and what has been the cost?” In a flowing, compassionately written narrative, the author attempts to remind her readers of their own cosmic significance, the uniqueness of their being. The vision she lays out is one of a post-God spiritual reality, a perception of life that dispenses with what the author claims is an ultimately toxic failed relationship between a seeking, questioning humanity and that figure of a Dominator God used to uphold white privilege through the ages. Her priority, expressed in emphatic though vague terms, is “the essential marriage of biodiversity and human diversity” in a new template that upends the standard religious presumptions in favor of concentrating on the inner wisdom, the “inner teacher” that every person possesses. The result is a thought-provoking reconsideration of what is genuinely sacred.
A cleareyed schema that calls for humanity to remember how to access its own sacred nature without resorting to the crutch of a God who takes more than He gives.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-941069-79-0
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Prose Press
Review Posted Online: July 11, 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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