Whatever they are, these pieces exude a rare spirit that delights to find the marvelous in the actual.
A thick sheaf of nonfictions—“essays” is a slight misnomer—all but two from earlier collections by novelist Connell (Deus Lo Volt!, 2000, etc.).
Just as he rang brilliant changes on military history in Son of the Morning Star (1984), Connell here takes the essay form and jams into it stories from history, snippets of legend, and odd bits of chronicle. If there is a feeling that runs through the pieces, it is one of boyish adventure. Several concern the Spanish conquistadors’ colonization of Mexico and South America, but there are stories about Scott’s expedition to the South Pole, the 13th-century Children’s Crusade (which left even contemporary observers baffled), and the origins of the Atlantis legend. In no case is Connell’s interest pedagogic; he never seeks a moral to his stories and seems motivated by simple wonder more than scholarly puzzlement. Though the writer occasionally hints at a contemporary relevance to his tales of derring-do, there is a stronger antiquarian streak, a love of detail for its own sake. Fortunately, Connell has an acute eye, and it is undoubtedly marvelous to learn that a typical breakfast on Scott’s voyage consisted of “tea and pemmican flavored with seal blubber, penguin feathers, and hair from the sleeping bags.” Another piece, about a Swedish dreadnought that sunk a mile offshore during its maiden voyage, describes the sundial, carved mermaids, and apothecary’s kit that rescuers found 300 years later as “unexpected and beautiful and wondrous.” In the same way, part of Connell’s purpose here is simply to drag into the light treasures that had been unjustly left rotting in the dark: he rescues brilliant fragments from the tides and trends of history.
Whatever they are, these pieces exude a rare spirit that delights to find the marvelous in the actual.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2001
ISBN: 1-58243-162-0
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Counterpoint
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2001
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
BOOK REVIEW
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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