A cranky test, celebratory of the writer's art, to which some attention may be paid.
The author of more than two dozen works of fiction (Entered From the Sun, 1990, etc.), biography (James Jones, 1984), criticism, poetry, and drama now turns his considerable powers to studied introspection.
Garrett (English/Univ. of Virginia) nearly, but not quite, comes up with an autobiography—an art form he describes as, at its best, "a cry for mercy concealed as a nonnegotiable demand for justice.'' That rings particularly true when the story has, as his does, a southern exposure, with its very diction and sensibility embedded in the War (the one between the states, of course). To be sure, there are narratives of other wars—in Europe, for example, or in the boxing ring. On occasion, the text, like a Broadway musical, bursts out of its mannered prose into creditable poetry and then lapses back into Garrett's wandering style— "digression,'' he confesses, "being the essence of my style.'' Another badge of his method is his penchant for eschewing the ancient and elementary rule of usage that requires a noun and a verb to appear together in the same sentence. Garrett does have his prejudices when it comes to his craft. There are kind words for fellow denizens of Dixie (Shelby Foote and James Dickey) and bit of buckshot for the likes of John Irving, John Updike, and Robert Coover. One story seems to be in homage to Hemingway. As for himself, Garrett, ever on the high road, discovers "a strong and deep feeling that virtuous acts that lead to any kind of profit or reward or...any forms of conventional honor and respect are not so much beneath contempt as unworthy of serious attention.''
A cranky test, celebratory of the writer's art, to which some attention may be paid.Pub Date: June 22, 1992
ISBN: 0-15-191313-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1992
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
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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