Potential enlightenment is trumped by too much crunk in the trunk.
A hustler recounts a life filled with drugs, sex, violence and some occasional love for the Man Upstairs.
In some respects, it’s refreshing to read the memoir of a hardcore thug who, despite a jailhouse conversion, hasn’t necessarily seen the light, a man who makes no apologies–and asks no forgiveness–for his willingness to exploit the weaknesses of others. On the other hand, this story of a misogynistic drug-dealer whose main concerns are himself and his money (not necessarily in that order) sheds little insight into the human condition. Though Nesta Ali’s childhood was a troubled one–his father killed a man shortly before his birth; his parents separated when he was young; his father caroused with numerous women in between drug deals–he had a loving, supportive mother and no shortage of intelligence and determination. Despite (he claims) attempting repeatedly to apply those qualities to legal activities (a short stint as a writer was his most successful endeavor), hustling–and the habits that go hand-in-hand with dealing–was too deeply embedded in him. While his cleverness and unique sense of integrity served him well on the streets, his selfishness and the inherently unpredictable nature of hustling led to a constant cycle of booms and busts, including a few prison sentences. That same selfishness precludes any chance of Ali achieving true intimacy, and despite an abundance of women in his life, he marks the duration of successful relationships in weeks or months rather than years. Of course, the fact that he often beats his women into submission might provide some insight into why he always ends up alone. The narrative is by turns fascinating and repulsive, intriguing and reprehensible. The ghetto slang belies the sharp writing, but the constant repetition of fights, drug overdoses and abusive relationships quickly becomes monotonous.
Potential enlightenment is trumped by too much crunk in the trunk.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9778491-0-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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