Allison (Bastard Out of Carolina, 1992, etc.) has assembled a nourishing compilation of articles and essays about being ``queer in a world that hates queers...poor [in] a world that despises the poor'' and a passionate writer and lover of literature. Written during the past 11 years, the two dozen pieces cover territory that has become central to Allison's writing: the ``deep and messy waters of class and sexual desire,'' prejudice, family, strong women, childhood sexual and emotional abuse, loss, love, betrayal, self-hatred, and self-definition. Taken as a whole, they offer instructive accounts of her various journeys to personal, political, and literary awareness. All the writings are punctuated by the author's signature blend of ruthless candor, rueful wit, and unfailing wisdom. The collection's new material (some of its best) focuses on how books helped her survive and escape poverty and hopelessness and ultimately reinvent her life. Strong chapters include Allison's tribute to her mentor, Bertha Harris; a ``personal history of lesbian porn''; a discussion of her science fiction fandom; and her impassioned speech at a gay and lesbian writers' conference in which she declares, ``I want to be able to write so powerfully I can break the heart of the world and heal it...remake it.'' If her earlier book Trash was the record of her rage, and Bastard the chronicle of her childhood, this is a document of her adult life—not the story of a tormented child or ``trashy lesbian'' bad girl so much as the mature musings of a wise woman. Much of this will be nothing new to readers of Allison's earlier books, and much has been printed before in the New York Native and elsewhere. But Skin is nonetheless a valuable record of a remarkable life and a testament to the struggles, triumphs, and growth of one bold and inspiring woman.
Pub Date: July 18, 1994
ISBN: 1-56341-045-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
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
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