A factoid-rich if bloated tribute to an overly maligned moment in pop history.
An oral history of England’s New Romantic pop movement, full of synths, style, and substance (no, really).
Conventional 1970 and ’80s rock history draws a direct line from punk to new wave to mainstream alternative acts, dismissing the likes of ABC, Spandau Ballet, Human League, and Culture Club as sideshows. But the more than 150 voices assembled by longtime pop journalist and GQ editor-in-chief Jones offer a more sophisticated—and, frankly, less homophobic—take. The scenesters who convened on London clubs like the Blitz saw punk as a spent force by the late ’70s and were more enchanted by electronic acts like Kraftwerk and the enduring glamour of David Bowie and Roxy Music. (For this crowd, Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” not a Sex Pistols or Clash single, was the key inspiration.) No question, fashion mattered plenty: Blitz impresario and Visage frontman Steve Strange proudly turned Mick Jagger away from his club because he was “dressed in a baseball cap and trainers.” But the music was vital, too, and Jones captures a moment when acts like Gary Numan, Yazoo, and Soft Cell were delivering pioneering synth-pop graced with some of Bowie’s stardust. The rise of MTV gave those bands a global platform but also spawned an army of lesser wannabes (even a young Ricky Gervais got into the act) and opened the movement to accusations of being only as good as their haircuts. The assembled commentators come armed with dishy anecdotes, though casual readers would be satisfied with a book half as long. By the time 1985 rolled around, heroin and fickle tastes had undone many of the musicians, which somewhat undercuts the author’s case for the musicians’ enduring influence. (Oddly, two of the era’s enduring acts, the Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode, get relatively short shrift.) But for a while there, everybody looked and sounded great.
A factoid-rich if bloated tribute to an overly maligned moment in pop history.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-571-35343-9
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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