Dedicated to ``the gay men and lesbians of American intellectual life''—a collection of generally scholarly essays that examine the status, behavior, and values of some segments of the gay community, emphasizing changes that have occurred since 1969's Stonewall Riot. Editor Herdt (Psychology/Univ. of Chicago) opens with a heavily documented essay, co-authored by Andrew Baxter, surveying the history of the gay community and the challenges it faces now that it is emancipated from the connotations of homosexuality as furtive and diseased. Using the anthropological perspective of his Guardians of the Flute (1980), Herdt describes in a follow-up essay the rites of passage of adolescent gays at Horizon Community Center in Chicago. Focusing on an older group in ``The Life and Death of Gay Clones,'' Martin P. Levine tests ``constructionist theories'' of ``social types,'' attributing the disappearance of the ``doped- up, sexed-out Marlboro Man'' of the 70's to the ``ethics of constraint and commitment'' that altered the rest of society. Assimilation as a theme appears in all the essays—in studies of subcultures in Los Angeles (E. Michael Gorman) and San Francisco (Stephen O. Murray), even in the sexual history of a Mexican- American (Joseph Carrier). Lamenting the lack of data, John L. Peterson avoids the use of the term ``gay'' in his study of black men with ``same sex desires,'' claiming that many black men act them out without becoming gay. And effeminate men are of little interest to any of the essayists, who find that bars, gay parades, coming-out, and AIDS are among the few distinguishing features of a once highly adversarial counterculture—one that, Herdt says, is as diverse as the rest of the population, responding to the same economic and political pressures, including the decline of casual sex. Overall, ponderous and dry (though Carrier's ``Miguel: Sexual Life History of a Gay Mexican American'' proves a notable exception).
Pub Date: Jan. 10, 1992
ISBN: 0-8070-7914-6
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1991
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
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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