Apparently bearing in mind the dull, distasteful impression made by Waugh's Diaries (1977), editor Amory's rather defensive introduction stresses that "this version" of Waugh "shows him to his best advantage so far." Well, perhaps. But though these 840 letters do certainly have more entertainment value than the Diaries (in most of them, Waugh is eager to amuse such taste-making ladies as Nancy Mitford and Diana Cooper), admirers of the fiction will still be dismayed by the smallness of mind here, the pettiness of soul. The most flattering letters are those sent from training stations to second wife Laura during World War II: Evelyn misses her, regrets her pregnancy (for her sake), rejoices too (for his sake and the sense of new life during a death-filled war). Fairly impressive, too, are the discussions of religion with poet John Betjeman and Thomas Merton. And some of Waugh's comedy is attractively self-deprecating (while courting Laura, he writes to Lady Mary Lygon: "I was sick a good deal on the table so perhaps that romance is shattered"). Most everywhere else, however, this is the familiar, waspish, snobbish, nasty, narrow Waugh—gossiping like mad (at times the necessary footnotes overwhelm the page), delivering wildly obtuse critiques ("Death to Picasso"—Proust and Lawrence too), spewing bigotry (against the Irish, Jews, French, etc.), praising McCarthyism, railing against any signs of reform in the Catholic Church. True, some of this may be outrageousness-for-effect, especially since correspondent Mitford (who gets detailed advice on her work) was a friend of all those Waugh hated. And a mostly good-natured Waugh does come across in letters to Graham Greene ("Come here quick. I have some caviar") and others. In fact, perhaps the most telling aspect of this collection is the chameleon-like nature of Waugh's epistolary style—silly with Lady Mary and such, very witty with Mitford, viperish with Cyril Connolly. . . but never particularly eloquent or grippingly human. An indirectly revealing collection, then, with a few intriguing oddities (restrained encouragement for fledgling novelist Alex Comfort) and reference points for the novels (the comic rhythms of the prose here, as well as EW's occasional work-in-progress comments)-but, all in all, another regretfully shallow display from a writer whose best work is anything but.
Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1980
ISBN: 1857992458
Page Count: 664
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1980
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
