A bellicose diagnosis of everything that’s wrong with America.
A debut political polemic bemoans the downfall of the United States.
Many in the commentariat have heaped blame on the 1 percent, who rig the system from their positions of power in Washington and on Wall Street, but the country’s problems go deeper than that. In his introduction, Cass writes: “I will, instead, share with you…experiences from family, friends, neighbors, and people like yourselves that typify our newfound greed, selfishness, and social problems.” According to the author, Wall Street’s greed is echoed in the unquestioning consumerism of average Americans, and the average person on Main Street is collaborating in the destruction of all that made the nation good. Chapter by chapter, Cass takes the reader through various segments of society, pointing out where and how they went wrong, from financial institutions (the first word of that chapter, tellingly, is “PIRATES!!!”) to immigrants (who “no longer have any intention of ever assimilating”) to sports (“All major sports have gone mad”) and religion (“It’s being used and abused as a tool for evil intent”). The author takes a particular interest in public education. His position on his district’s School Committee (“I was almost the first School Committee member to sue my own school district”) means that his critique of education is more minutiae-based than other topics. The text features occasional inaccuracies (Laura Bush is not an “unwavering Catholic,” or any other sort of Catholic), though the author provides copious endnotes that cite the origins of his many claims. Cass has some faith that things could turn around, but the book’s qualified optimism is undercut by its inauspicious penultimate line—“can you imagine an all Republican government led by Donald Trump?” While many of the author’s criticisms of government and industry are on point, he frequently comes across as cranky. His distaste for technology lacks nuance, and his views on immigration are downright nativist. This mix of conservative and liberal positions means there are things to please and offend nearly every reader, though those oft-invoked voters who supported Bernie Sanders or Trump seem most likely to see themselves best reflected in Cass’ mirror.
A bellicose diagnosis of everything that’s wrong with America.Pub Date: July 31, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-47422-8
Page Count: 404
Publisher: America Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2017
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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