Not Bowden at his best, but even middling Bowden is better than most contemporary authors at their peaks.
A trademark hallucinatory tour of the Southwestern borderlands by its chief literary interpreter.
The work of Bowden (1945-2014) falls into two rough categories: meditations on the psychotic world of the drug cartels and its supporting players south of the border and the wanton destruction of desert places by capitalist predators to the north of it. In this posthumous work—one of numerous books that he left behind in various states of completeness—he writes of a beleaguered Border Patrol agent attempting to keep illegal crossers from coming across the line even as a coyote tells him, tauntingly, “I’m crossing fifty Brazilians tomorrow, right along this stretch and you can’t stop me.” Naturally, he made good on his promise. Two leitmotifs play prominently in Bowden’s book: sandhill cranes, intermediaries between the human and spirit world; and madness, whether enacted by institutionalized patients in a Mexican jail or by the renowned painter Vincent Van Gogh. (It’s Bowden’s love for Beethoven, who makes an appearance, that gives the book its title.) Bowden has two rhetorical modes as well: swiftly moving run-on sentences that take up whole pages (“…you are the illegals coming north, or climbing out of a container in a port and here is what is wrong with you, you didn’t pick the right parents and this will not be forgiven, and this is true of the Mexican or the Chinaman or the zone-tailed hawk or the lion padding softly down the creek in the night, eyes huge with hunger for the fresh blood of the deer”) and portentous, short, fragmentary paragraphs (“I drift off, people tell me I vanish before their eyes. A ghost in my own life”). The former category is dominant, and if the author is incantatory, one sometimes wishes he’d reach for a period. Earlier works such as Blue Desert and Killing the Hidden Waters are more disciplined in this regard.
Not Bowden at his best, but even middling Bowden is better than most contemporary authors at their peaks.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4773-2223-9
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Univ. of Texas
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
The choir is sure to enjoy this impassioned preaching on familiar progressive themes.
Essays on current political topics by a high-profile actor and activist.
Milano explains in an introduction that she began writing this uneven collection while dealing with a severe case of Covid-19 and suffering from "persistent brain fog.” In the first essay, "On Being Unapologetically Fucked Up,” the author begins by fuming over a February 2019 incident in which she compared MAGA caps worn by high school kids to KKK hoods. She then runs through a grab bag of flash-point news items (police shootings, border crimes, sexual predators in government), deploying the F-bomb with abandon and concluding, "What I know is that fucked up is as fundamental a state of the world as night and day. But I know there is better. I know that ‘less fucked up’ is a state we can live in.” The second essay, "Believe Women," discusses Milano’s seminal role in the MeToo movement; unfortunately, it is similarly conversational in tone and predictable in content. One of the few truly personal essays, "David," about the author's marriage, refutes the old saw about love meaning never having to say you're sorry, replacing it with "Love means you can suggest a national sex strike and your husband doesn't run away screaming." Milano assumes, perhaps rightly, that her audience is composed of followers and fans; perhaps these readers will know what she is talking about in the seemingly allegorical "By Any Other Name," about her bad experience with a certain rosebush. "Holy shit, giving birth sucked," begins one essay. "Words are weird, right?" begins the next. "Welp, this is going to piss some of you off. Hang in there," opens a screed about cancel culture—though she’s entirely correct that “it’s childish, divisive, conceited, and Trumpian to its core.” By the end, however, Milano's intelligence, compassion, integrity, and endurance somewhat compensate for her lack of literary polish.
The choir is sure to enjoy this impassioned preaching on familiar progressive themes.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-18329-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A fascinating and funny look at the life of a famous actor who found further fulfillment through giving back.
The actor discusses his career on the stage and in film, and his life focusing on the value of art and public service.
Now 66, Stern, perhaps best known for his roles in Home Alone and City Slickers, is no longer "the precocious teenager who moved to New York as a seventeen-year-old, at least ten years younger than all of my friends, the youngest dad at all my kids’ school events.” As he discusses his childhood in Maryland, his introduction to the theater, and writing a musical version of Lord of the Flies, the author's love of the work shows through on every page—as does his family’s legacy of a strong work ethic (his mother told him, “I don’t care what you do but you are out of this house when you turn eighteen”). Realizing that “academics were not going to get me anywhere,” he committed to acting. After some early stage work, he began working in films, appearing in a number of critically successful projects in the late 1970s and early ’80s, including Breaking Away and Diner. Stern analyzes key moments in the development of his craft, as well as the twists and turns of a very public life, which included work with the USO and the experience of being sued for $25 million over a TV show. Although readers may pick up the book to learn more about Hollywood, his focus on his work-life balance brings some of the most memorable passages, from his narration and directing work in the TV series The Wonder Years (which included no on-screen billing), which helped him overcome his childhood dyslexia, to his experience working with the Boys & Girls Club and his lifelong focus on public service.
A fascinating and funny look at the life of a famous actor who found further fulfillment through giving back.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781632280930
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Jan. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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