Sprightly and scholarly, this will appeal to grammar geeks who are patient with Watson’s free-range sensibility.
A brisk study of the history and meaning of an especially contentious punctuation mark.
What is a semicolon for? What rules guide its usage? Consensus is hard to come by. Indeed, as Watson (Language and Thinking Program/Bard Coll.) explains in this informed and witty book, efforts to pin the semicolon down have only made it slipperier. A 15th-century Venetian publisher introduced the mark at a time when punctuation was employed more loosely, to signal pauses and underscore rhythms rather than serve grammatical correctness. Since then, despite diktats from the Chicago Manual of Style and elsewhere, satisfying guidance remains fleeting. Fittingly but also a bit frustratingly, the author structures her book in a semicolon-ish way; the chapters are loosely related but not always closely connected. A history of the semicolon gives way to an extended digression on squabbles among 19th-century grammar gurus; a discussion of how semicolons impacted Boston drinking laws and a death sentence gives way to an op-ed riff on the messiness of legal interpretations; close analyses of passages by Raymond Chandler, Irvine Welsh, and Herman Melville flow into Watson’s own usage advice and critiques of the perceived snobbery of high style in general. If the author isn't padding, she sometimes seems determined to stretch the scope of the book beyond its stated subject. Yet from chapter to chapter, she brings a gadfly’s spirit to the proceedings, thoughtfully lobbying for written English that resists restrictions and recognizes that “rules will be, just as they always have been, inadequate to form a protective fence around English.” The value of the semicolon may be no clearer by the end. But then, it’s a form of punctuation defined by ambiguity.
Sprightly and scholarly, this will appeal to grammar geeks who are patient with Watson’s free-range sensibility.Pub Date: July 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-285305-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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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