Sympathetic, authoritative, and readable.
A penetrating view of the life, work, and character of a renowned writer, artist, playwright, and countercultural icon.
Wakefield, editor of Vonnegut’s collected letters and short stories as well as a personal friend of the late author, incorporates dozens of the former as well as extracts from speeches and personal memories into a present-tense, second-person encomium that slides smoothly over some rougher spots—notably fractured relationships with certain publishers and agents as well as both of his wives. But readers who are still, after so many years, encountering Vonnegut’s edgy, profane, often hilarious writing in high school or later will find links aplenty between his early experiences and later works and themes alongside ample documentation of his devastating and even now timely attacks on warmongers and, as the author of several perennially challenged books, self-appointed censors. The epistolary passages make up for a relative paucity of direct quotes from the books in providing a sense of his voice, and the notes for an undelivered talk that close the main narrative (the editor adds on substantial reminiscences and acknowledgements) do capture his characteristic sensibility and wit: “And how should we behave during this Apocalypse? We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. But we should also stop being so serious. Jokes help a lot. And get a dog, if you don’t already have one….I’m out of here.”
Sympathetic, authoritative, and readable. (photo credits, index) (Biography. 13-18)Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2022
ISBN: 9781644211908
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Triangle Square Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A collection of illustrated vignettes about “…the ways we accept and define ourselves throughout our lives, and how, for better or worse, they shape who we become.” Scowen, a long-time youth counselor and consultant, solicited and selected 12 true first-person accounts of defining moments from childhood or adolescence. The experiences run the gamut from kidnapping (“Drive”) and family violence (“Punch”) to body image (“Big Girl”) and sexual identity (“Playing House”). Each hand-lettered story is illustrated in spiky pen and broad pastel strokes by Mitchell and accompanied by a Q&A section in which each author further describes the positive or negative effect the event had on their lives. While this is an adequate gateway title for identity-seeking teens in search of comfort or guidance, its broad focus and scant list of additional resources (made up of hotlines, books and websites) mean it will be of limited use for homework or projects. A purely additional purchase for libraries looking to expand their teen self-help section. (Nonfiction. 13 & up)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-55451-225-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
An excellent introduction for laymen and students of literature.
A concise account of a tireless political writer’s adventures and education.
The publication of Orwell’s novel 1984 serves as the endpoint for this pocket biography, insofar as everything in the writer’s rich life seems to have contributed to that masterpiece. Agathocleous (English/Rutgers) argues that Orwell’s status as a scholarship boy at Eton awakened his sense of class consciousness early on. Working in the Imperial Police in Burma introduced him to the injustices of colonialism. Posing as a derelict in London and Paris, he began his literary career as a participatory journalist, seeing first-hand the economic failures of the prosperous West. These stories are well known, of course, and the author does not add much to them. Chapters devoted to Orwell’s experience in the Spanish Civil War and as a BBC correspondent in London during WWII are more informative: Orwell was frustrated by the censors and the bureaucrats of the BBC, and these lesser difficulties compared unfavorably with his charged, egalitarian experiences in Spain (where he fought bravely and suffered injuries). Eventually he quit the BBC to write for leftist journals and engage in the political infighting of the day, bucking popular opinion—and elite dogma—in his criticisms of the USSR. In due time that struggle bore fruit: in 1945 he published his fable Animal Farm, a manifesto against the abuse of political power that was also his first critical and financial success. Three years later, with the war over and Stalin by then perceived as an enemy, he wrote 1984 while ensconced on a Scottish island, bedridden and dying from tuberculosis. Details of Orwell’s family life are given throughout, but his literary exploits crowd them out. Recent charges that Orwell denounced friends and colleagues to the British authorities as communist sympathizers are given scant attention, however, and may prompt frustrated readers to wonder why a longer consideration of this topic was omitted.
An excellent introduction for laymen and students of literature.Pub Date: July 3, 2000
ISBN: 0-19-512185-6
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2000
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
