In this revision of the story of the Dead Sea scrolls, with more than half new material, Wilson acts as a scholarly reporter, one who has visited the sites and talked with innumerable archaeologists, linguists, orientalists and Biblical authorities of all degrees of pious or impious persuasion. Since 1955 and his original book, new scrolls have come to light and older ones, in very precarious condition, have been read and published. Among them is an Aramaic version of Genesis with an account of the beauty of Sarah, a scroll containing 41 psalms (including 8 apocryphal compositions), and various fragments relating to the history and practices of the Essene sect. In addition there have been excavations at the site of the monastery presumed to be the source of the scrolls, and at Masada, the rock fortress where the Zealots made their last ditch stand against the Romans. Wilson discusses these finds from the point of view of the key scholars involved, dwelling at length on the theory that the teachings of Jesus and their elaboration into Christian doctrine may have come about through a gradual process of evolution within the Essene movement in which a principal leader, the Teacher of Righteousness, may have served as an earlier messianic model. Wilson reflects on how difficult it has been for scholars deeply confirmed in a particular orthodoxy to accept new ideas or sources. When compounded by the profound hostility, tension and frustration of life in the Middle East today it is no wonder that scholarship marches slowly and only someone of Wilson's caliber seems willing or able to take on the enormous task of explaining to the layman just what the acrimony and controversy is all about.
Pub Date: May 19, 1969
ISBN: 0006270182
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1969
BOOK REVIEW
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
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