Readers curious about how HIV prevention drugs can influence a sexual revolution should find lots of vivid details in this...
A young gay man shares his anxieties and epiphanies about safe sex in this memoir.
The author’s not really sure when he first heard about AIDS. As a child in the 1980s and early ’90s, Peterson (Skin Job, 2012, etc.) knew the anxiety that swirled around the disease, an unease that followed him as he came out. But by the time he reached college, the landscape had dramatically shifted with HIV treatments. In this chatty, diarylike narrative, Peterson shares his journey from his initial, fraught sexual encounters to the assured, fun adventures he has thanks, in large part, to PrEP, an HIV prevention pill. In his early escapades, Peterson found himself wondering how gay sex fit into the idea of first base, second base, and so on. He dated throughout college, having a range of good experiences, bad ones, and an especially traumatizing encounter during which he was sexually assaulted. After college, Peterson “pinballed around from one lousy hookup to another” until a friend and mentor suggested he try dating HIV-positive men instead of “ignoring that huge chunk of the queer population.” Peterson eventually warmed to the idea and soon after decided to go on PrEP. As his explorations continued, he found a wealth of sexual partners and a minefield of opinions to battle. Most important, he developed confidence in the bedroom and outside of it. Diary is the right category for this charming and candid book, as it’s filled with detailed one-night stands, Grindr messages, heart-to-hearts with friends, and some truly intimate moments. In writing about sex, Peterson leaves no stone unturned and matches his memories with his wit. “I should’ve lost my virginity to Cher, not Avril Lavigne,” he quips. The author is careful to weave his storytelling into his research, which only gets clunky occasionally, as when whole chunks of interviews with others interrupt the narrative. There are some spots where the account drags, in the parade of sexual exploits, but it remains readable and enjoyable nonetheless.
Readers curious about how HIV prevention drugs can influence a sexual revolution should find lots of vivid details in this ambitious and honest story.Pub Date: May 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-59021-579-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: Lethe Press
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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