Nothing new for an overflowing table.
A wholly unnecessary retelling of the Fab Four’s story, from an author who fails to add anything that seasoned Beatles fanatics don’t already know.
Writer, actor and radio-show host Giuliano (Dark Horse, 1991, etc.) adds to his Beatles oeuvre (a second volume on Harrison is already in the works) with this basic runthrough of the highs and lows the four members of the Beatles collectively and individually endured; he is aided by his daughter Avalon. They begin with a dedication to the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, which immediately brings to mind the most spiritual member of the Beatles, George Harrison. Indeed, the authors conclude with a touching tribute to Harrison, whose death is among the most recent events they cover. Unfortunately, they also include an ill-timed eulogy to Paul McCartney’s post-Linda marriage to former model Heather Mills, which is being dissolved just as Giuliano’s book reaches publication. The few scraps of new information presented emanate from Giuliano’s connection to George Harrison, but he fails to adequately explain his relationship with the former Beatle. There is a hint that Giuliano and Harrison bonded over spirituality: The dedication to the Swami offers a clue, as does an e-mail sent to Giuliano from a Krishna monk who met Harrison shortly before his death. But Giuliano’s insufficient clarification spoils what could have been an interesting addendum to a perfunctory retrospective, making this a needless addition to the welter of literature on a band whose magic is buckling under the weight of over-familiarity.
Nothing new for an overflowing table.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2006
ISBN: 1-84454-160-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: John Blake/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...
The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).
Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-42850-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
SEEN & HEARD
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