While this collection of random journalism—some dating back to 1974, but most from the past decade—has the inevitable...
Agreeable ephemera—book reviews, forewords to reissues, personal essays, etc.—illuminating the distinguished novelist’s nonfictional preoccupations.
Now 86, Lessing (The Grandmothers, 2004, etc.) occasionally comes across as a cranky old lady in scattered asides about the horrors of political correctness (a bit much from a former Stalinist), the deleterious effects of 1960s “hedonism” and the fact that no one knows the Bible anymore. In general, however, these short works show her to be living very much in the present. “The Tragedy of Zimbabwe” scathingly anatomizes the corruption of Robert Mugabe’s regime, betrayer of the hopes for black empowerment and a multiracial society in her former homeland of Rhodesia. A half-dozen pieces, including reviews of several books about Sufism and two tributes to Idries Shah, remind us of Lessing’s pioneering interest in the mystic tradition and her understanding that the West ignores the achievements and history of Islam to its own detriment. “After 9.11” casts a cold eye on America’s tendency to feel “unique, alone, misunderstood, beleaguered,” reminding the U.S. that other nations have suffered terrorism with considerably less self-pity. In the collection’s warmer moments, Lessing eloquently praises writers she loves (D.H. Lawrence, Jane Austen, Christina Stead, Stendhal, Olive Schreiner) and some noteworthy contemporary works, from Desmond Morris’s Catlore (she adores cats and birds) to Alma Guillermoprieto’s Dancing with Cuba. The power of literature is a perennial theme, and on more than one occasion Lessing movingly notes the hunger for books expressed by people in impoverished Third World countries. Storytelling has always shaped society, she argues in “Problems, Myths, and Stories.” It is not just a leisure-time distraction for the privileged, but a means of imparting values and instruction on proper behavior.
While this collection of random journalism—some dating back to 1974, but most from the past decade—has the inevitable repetitions and a rather scattershot feel, it still gives a nice sense of Lessing’s character and commitments in vigorous old age.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-083140-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
© 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.
